


Second Chances

by celedan



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Torchwood
Genre: Anal Sex, Children of Earth Fix-It, Eventual Happy Ending, First Time, Immortal Ianto Jones, It's better with Ianto in it, John Hart Saves the Day, M/M, Miracle Day Fix-It kind of, Oral Sex, Parallel Universe Ianto, Parallel Universes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-16
Updated: 2017-12-16
Packaged: 2019-02-15 15:19:54
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 75,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13033947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celedan/pseuds/celedan
Summary: When John finds Jack heart-broken because of Ianto's death, he decides to help Jack - by hopping to countless other universes to go look for another Ianto. After failure upon failure, he comes to a universe, where he meets a Ianto that is as heart-broken as John's Jack. Because his Jack is dead. And he is immortal. Bingo.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Second Chances - German](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11696397) by [celedan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/celedan/pseuds/celedan). 



> I have to apologise beforehand if sometimes (or often), the language sounds pretty wooden and awkward. I translated my story from German into English, and that's way more difficult than simply writing it freely in English from the beginning (plus, I tend to use boa-constrictor sentences in German which then don't really work any more when translated into English). But I think, you'll get the gist of it.  
> Second, if you haven't ever watched Miracle Day, a lot of thinks will be very hard to understand since I broach some aspects in the story only very loosely or allude to them briefly.  
> Have fun reading.

**Chapter 01 – Atonement**

He found him in a shit hole which surpassed even the one in Australia. Originally, John had wanted to intercept him there, but arriving in this filthy pub in the middle of the outback, the only trace Jack had left were the bodies of two men who'd wanted to off him.* John grunted unimpressed. Wasn't a shame these two were dead, but the mere fact that Jack had killed two people instead of solving the problem otherwise told John how out of it he really was.

Heck, the man was finished, Eye candy's death simply ripping out his beating heart, and the only things he could fill the gaping hole with were alcohol and sex. If there was one thing that could surprise John after all he'd seen and done, it was the death of an insignificant though cute Welsh man who'd better stayed down in his archives than being in the field bringing down the great Jack Harkness. Jack'd never been the type to dwell on relationships for long, especially the man he'd been before he started calling himself Jack Harkness. But even after... okay, John had made a few inquiries, and therefore knew of Jack's past marriages and more serious relationships. He'd read a few Torchwood reports and other stuff about Jack of which he could have gotten a hold, but nothing ever indicated that he was as devastated about the death of one of the people he'd loved as he was about the death of Ianto Jones.

John had settled down pretty well over there in Mexico, and he had to admit that this planet wasn't so bad in the end. By now, the planet'd grown on him. When these aliens arrived, controlling the children of the earth, it was clear to John that Jack would handle this. Who if not Jack Harkness would throw these wankers out.

But when John learned which losses Jack'd had to pay for the victory over the 456, he started getting seriously concerned about his ex-partner. On the spur of the moment, he dropped everything to get to Jack. But he always missed him. The man hopscotched across the earth – using outdated human technology – just to kill off his liver and fuck his dick raw to forget about Ianto Jones, but he was just gone every time John caught up with him however (by using the teleportation device on his vortex manipulator).

But not this time.

This time, John was faster.

And that's why he now stood before this rundown, dirty pub in Kansas which sold alcohol so bad that even the low price couldn't even it out. You could just as well drink spiritus, and for John of all people to be of this opinion was pretty telling.

But Jack fit in here. There wasn't much left of the smart, irresistible man he'd once known. Sure, the grey military coat remained even if it was in desperate need of a wash (as was the rest of Jack), and the Webley was still fastened at Jack's belt, but otherwise, John had to admit to being upset as he stepped nearer. Jack's face was gaunt, his eyes bloodshot because of too much alcohol and too little sleep. His thin face was covered in stubble, his hair dull and unkempt. He probably hadn't eaten for a long time, too. Well, he couldn't starve, right? Or rather, he could, and it was likely that he did want to starve, but what then? Everything would be the same the moment he woke up. He even would have back his original weight, only giving him the opportunity to start punishing himself again by starving himself or whatever. John was convinced that Jack hadn't just left it at alcohol and sex, instead falling back on killing himself, or getting himself killed, all of this drastic measures being too short an escape from reality every time he did this – every reawakening as painful as before because he woke up in a world without Ianto Jones.

To be honest, John was clueless how to help Jack, but he couldn't just stand about, and do nothing. Hesitantly, he stepped up to the bar, and sat down on the barstool next to Jack.

“No matter how much you drink, we're still in Kansas, not Oz,” he told him softly.

Jack still jumped after needing a few seconds to register that it was him who was being spoken to, and who it was that appeared next to him so suddenly.

“Fuck off, John,” he growled tiredly, his voice raspy so as if he hadn't used it much in the last months.

John shrugged. “You know, I've never been good with taking orders.”

“I can make you leave,” Jack countered darkly, but John only sighed.

“Not in the shape you're in.” And that what's being sad about all this. 

For a while, Jack ignored him, instead tending to the cheap booze before him.

“If you don' wanna go, then at least make yourself useful,” Jack demanded finally, gulping down the next glass of alcohol.

“'M not here to sleep with you,” John retorted as he eventually realised what Jack was talking about. 

Jack banged his glass down on the bar before him. “An' why the hell not?!” he snapped at him. “This is your chance. That's what you wanted since you came here.”

John flinched, whimpering, in the hope that Jack would stop talking so loud. He had to realise that this planet, as much as he liked it by now, was still stuck in the Stone Ages when it came to sex. And that it, being at the arse end of nowhere, in Kansas, only could mean trouble when a man hit on another wasn't really hard to guess. John likely would be busy enough caring for Jack without having to cause a bloodbath under all this intolerant, homophobic hillbilly wankers to shut them up, too.

“But I'm not the one you want,” he replied softly, earning himself a sardonic grunt from Jack in answer.

“The one I want is six feet under,” Jack replied bitterly.

“What's with him that you've given up so completely?!” John surged up suddenly, gripped by brightly blazing desperation and frustration all of a sudden. “Why him?!”

Jack spun around to him with a speed John wouldn't have given him credit for in his current state, and glared at him warningly.

For a moment, it looked as if Jack would punch him, and John would have welcomed it, but instead, Jack only answered him with a hissed “I don't know” before his shoulders crumbled hopelessly, and he turned to his alcohol once more.

“I lost so many,” Jack mumbled into his glass. “Wives, lovers, friends, family.”

John flinched at hearing the last one.

“And it always hurt, always, but I got over it every time, eventually. But Ianto...” Jack went quiet. Obviously he couldn't explain it himself why out of all the losses he'd had to suffer it was the death of Ianto Jones that ultimately shattered him.

Hesitantly John put his hand on Jack's shoulder. “Come. Let's go.”

He applied gentle pressure and since Jack didn't seem to care for anything at the moment, the older man let himself be led from the bar willingly.

 

He didn't ask Jack where he stayed, instead he brought him to his own hotel. The bungalow he'd chosen was set apart a little from the others so that at least they wouldn't draw too much attention to themselves should it come to extremes between them.

After the door fell shut behind them, John directed Jack into the bathroom where he pushed him down onto the closed toilet lid. Without a word, he briskly started to disrobe Jack, and stick him into the shower, all the while ignoring the inarticulate obscenities with which Jack tried to provoke.

As penance, he plunged him under freezing water, Jack's outraged exclamation satisfaction to John's ears.

But then, he started to pity him (and he had to step under the ice-cold jet, too, after all), and turned the temperature up higher. Only clad in his wet jeans, his other clothes hastily whipped off, and thrown on the floor, he stepped beside Jack into the small shower cubicle, starting to wash the gaunt body. The sight of the protruding ribs and the starkly outlined spine were like a knife to John's guts.

Before he was finished, Jack began to shiver despite the warm water, and John hurried to bring him into the dry. Wrapped into one of the washed-out towels of the hotel, John led him into the other room, and pushed him down onto the bed. With another towel, he gently rubbed Jack's hair dry.

“I should get us something to eat,” he mumbled more to himself as he instinctively started to run his fingers through Jack's damp hair to bring a bit of order to it.

“I don't wanna eat,” Jack replied stubbornly, and instead leant into John's touch. “Don't go,” he added with a whisper, and in the next moment, John felt Jack's arm wrapping around his hips, pulling him nearer so that Jack could bury his face at John's belly.

“You're the only one who knows how I feel,” he mumbled, John never stopping to gently stroke through his hair. 

He barked out a humourless laugh. “I'm probably the last person on Earth who can understand how you're feeling.”

“But you know,” countered Jack sighing, and pressed himself closer to John. “All the others. They didn't know. They didn't know him.”

“No,” John agreed after hesitating for a while. “They didn't.”

“See,” Jack breathed against John's stomach. John trembled, feeling Jack's warm breath against his wet skin. He met Jack's gaze, challenging and hypnotic, and suddenly, he felt himself becoming powerless. He allowed Jack to pull him slowly down on to the bed without breaking their intensive eye contact. “I need this, tonight,” Jack whispered, and put his hands on John's neck gently to pull him closer. “I want us to remember together.”

John shuddered again as Jack's warm, moist breath hit his lips. He nodded willingly because now, being near Jack, after the shower had rid his body of the stench of the pub, he could smell him. Jack's smell had always made him weak, no matter that they were from the same time, and him therefore exuding the same irresistible pheromones. He lowered his head the last centimetres to kiss Jack while pushing the damp towel from his shoulders.

His hands trembled as he put them on Jack's shoulders, this time in a conscious effort and not in a clinical touch like before under the shower. He pressed his own naked chest against Jack's, feeling the warmth and the firm muscles under the immaculate skin. And only then did he realise how much he had missed to feel this man. In the course of his life, he'd had a lot of hot one-night-stands, but somehow – and most of the time this was simply an overly sentimental nuisance – none of them could compare to Jack Harkness. Nobody ever got close to the way Jack could focus his whole being on his partner so that you forgot everything around you, nobody came close to his playfulness and passion, and no-one managed to look at you the way he looked at you, like, in this one moment, you were the most precious thing this man owned.

So, if he now yielded to Jack's irresistibility, and took advantage of Jack's momentary weakness, he really couldn't blame himself for this (and honestly, you didn't get rid of a sex addiction through  _one_ lousy withdrawal after all). 

He rolled from Jack to frantically get rid of his sogging jeans. It was not as easy as he'd thought. But with Jack's enthusiastic help, they finally managed to drag the tight fabric down John's legs, letting them fall to the ground. Promptly, Jack pushed him back onto the mattress, slipped from the bed so that he came to kneel between John's legs, and took him in his warm mouth in one swift, hungry motion. John cried out in surprise. He clawed his fingers deeply into Jack's hair, and closed his eyes in ecstasy while he enjoyed Jack's hot, wet mouth around him, his full lips wrapping snugly around his dick. A choked gurgle was the only sound he could make as Jack started to suck, his skilful, manipulative fingers closing around John's balls, squeezing gently.

“Jack,” he panted in a fruitless attempt to protest – and this only for decency's sake, mind ya. But after a few minutes in which he felt his orgasm rapidly drawing nearer with every passing second, he pushed Jack away – one of the hardest decisions he ever had to make. But he needed... He just had to...

He wrenched Jack onto the bed, and rolled them both around so that he pushed the taller man down into the mattress. Now, it was his turn. As if in a craze, he let his hands roam over Jack's gaunt but willing body, different, but familiar nonetheless. Rudely, he pinched one of his nipples between his fingers, causing the other man to arch his back towards John's ministrations with a moan, and then he let his hands glide between the other man's legs. Oh, how he had missed this. This absolutely fantastic dick which he could barely encircle with his fingers. This throbbing heat and the all encompassing smell, becoming more distinct with the first drops of precome beading on the glans. After a few seconds, he stopped touching him which earned him a protesting whine from Jack, and instead shoved his fingers between Jack's ass cheeks.

Confused, John stopped as Jack's fingers suddenly closed vice-like around his wrist. He looked into his eyes, and encountered a surprisingly clear and determined glint in the blue depths. Jack shook his head firmly, and before John could react, Jack rolled them both around once more so that it was him now pushing the smaller man down. In this moment, John hated Ianto Jones like no other. He hated the power this unremarkable, weak boy held over Jack even now so that Jack's desperation and loneliness made him lower himself to sleep with John again, but saving this one act for a dead man. He hated him, but at the same time, John held him in the highest regards for managing to conquer Jack's heart completely – and crushing him through his death.

Jack wrapped John's legs around his hips, and entered him with two slippery fingers without any forewarning. This brought John abruptly back into the here and now. He involuntarily let out a surprised shout, and asked himself where Jack had gotten the lube from until he remembered the small packet in his trouser pocket which Jack must have found. Very well then. Relaxed, he let himself sink back into the mattress, wrapping his legs tighter around Jack's waist. That's the way it had been between them most of the time, and he was prepared to take everything Jack was willing to give him. Let him hold on to his idealised perceptions of Ianto Jones with everything this may contain. John would get his money's worth regardless.

He groaned loudly as Jack pulled his fingers out of him none too gently, replacing them with his cock, which he pressed against John's hole.

“Oh yes, do it,” he moaned, arching his groin towards Jack. Without hesitation Jack entered him abruptly, causing both men to groan throatily. Trembling, they held each other for a moment, so as not to become overwhelmed by this intense feeling, but then Jack put John's legs over his shoulders, and started to thrust into him with deep, hard strokes.

 

Gasping and sweat-soaked, the two men lay on the bed next to each other, none of them moving for long minutes. Eventually, John hesitantly turned his head to look at Jack, and uncertainly felt for Jack's hand. To his surprise, Jack rolled over to face him, nestling against John's side tightly. Dumbstruck, John was frozen for a moment before he turned onto his side, too, and pulled Jack into his arms.

“I was so arrogant, John,” Jack softly said after some time, his voice halting and chocked.

John swore inside; so it amounted to this again, but he just listened to his ex-partner quietly. After all, he came here to support Jack, and give him comfort however he could.

“Why?” he asked softly. His informants couldn't tell him much about what really happened.

Jack hesitated for a few seconds, pressing his face into the crook of John's neck before finding the strength to continue. “I thought we could take on the 456. I was so sure, dragging Ianto into Thames-House. Something in me wanted to impress him, wanted to show him how I would master this whole situation, trying this way to make up for what I did to Clem and the other children. I wanted to show him that I'm no bad person at heart.”

John didn't know what's the deal with these other children back then or this Clem, but that wasn't important at the moment. “Even if you'd forbidden him to go, he'd have followed you regardless,” John said instead. “Because he loved you.”

John felt the small smile of Jack's lips upon his skin. “Yeah, he would've.”

But then, Jack's fingers suddenly dug into John's back desperately. “I never told him that I love him, too,” Jack choked out full of bitter regret. “I was too much of a coward to tell him, even in the moment of his death.”

“He knew,” John tried to console him, but Jack shook his head.

“I never gave him any reason to think otherwise. On the contrary: A few days before, I told him I dislike relationships. I've seen how hurt he was even though he tried to hide it, but I didn't care. At this time I thought it was good as it was. Uncomplicated. Relationships make ev'rything much more complicated.”

“As does love.”

Jack agreed with a crestfallen grunt. “Yeah. Look at me now.”

John didn't reply anything to this. After all, he'd seen what it did to Jack, and furthermore, he didn't know how to reply anyway. Instead, he gently stroked through Jack's hair and over his back. “You should sleep. Bet you even don't know when's the last time you slept.”

Instead of protesting, Jack simply let out an assenting sound, and John felt Jack relax in his arms, his body getting heavier in impending sleep.

Deep in thought, John pulled the blanket over them both, and followed Jack into sleep a few minutes later.

 

“What are you gonna do now?” John asked while sitting together on the bed, bend over their lunch. Pensively, Jack tapped the chopsticks against his bottom lip before turning his attention back to the mediocre Chinese takeaway in the cardboard box before him. 

“Don't know.” He shrugged his shoulders casually.

John watched him for a while attentively, his food forgotten for the moment. Jack looked much better today. Amazing what a little bit of soap, water, and one slept through night could achieve. John didn't dare attribute this astounding changes to his presence. Well, maybe a little. It had done Jack good noticeably to talk with someone who knew what this was all about. Apart from being sober, Jack was relatively sane today, too.

“I think I can't stay here,” Jack continued without any emotion in his voice, drawing John's attention to himself again.

John grunted cynically. “I shouldn't hope so.”

“No.” Jack shook his head. “On Earth. There's too much stuff haunting me here, even at the farthest corners of the planet.” He threw his chopsticks back into the carton, and propped himself up against the headboard. “It's not only Ianto. Every time I see a child, I have to think about my grandson, and the thinks I did to him.”

“You didn't have a choice!”

“No, I didn't, but that doesn't justify what I did. Through this, I also lost my daughter.”

John nibbled on his lower lip thoughtfully. “Maybe it would really be better to not see other humans for a while.”

“Hmhm...”

“Should I...” John turned his gaze away from Jack who stared into space vacantly. “Do you want me to help you? I'll take you wherever you want... whenever you want.”

After a few seconds, he looked at Jack again. A small smile even played around Jack's lips. “Thanks. I'll think about something. A place where nothing reminds me of this life.” He nodded. “Yeah. That's what I need at the moment. But I'm staying in this timeline. No reason to make things more complicated.”

“Yeah, ehm, all right. Just tell me when, and I'm ready.”

They looked at each other for a few moments before Jack turned away again to continue staring into space absent-mindedly. “I've gotta say goodbye to Gwen. Then we can go.”

 

The wind was cold, and on this lone hill overlooking Cardiff, he was even more at the mercy of the icy gusts. But he didn't care about the coldness of march. On the contrary, his dead, numbed inner self was filled with a spark of warmth seeing Gwen climb the hill together with Rhys. Her advancing pregnancy clearly visible. And despite everything, he was happy for the two of them.

They stopped a few meters away from him, scrutinizing each other.

“Couldn't have just chosen a pub, could you?” Gwen began the conversation finally to lighten up the mood a bit. 

“It's bloody freezing,” Rhys put in grumbling. “My feet...”

An exasperated smile full of affection managed to steal on Jack's face. “Oh, I will miss that, the Welsh complaining.”

He let the smile die slowly, and fixated his gaze on Gwen. “You look good.”

She grunted in amusement. “I look huge.”

“She's bloody gorgeous.”

Jack couldn't help but agree with Rhys, and he joined in the laugh as Gwen stepped towards him.

“You okay?” she asked carefully.

“Yeah.” What should he have told her otherwise.

“Did it work?”

He hesitated before answering. “Travelled all sorts of places.” He took a deep breath, and in this moment, he was glad that she hadn't witnessed his darkest hours during the last months. “This planet is too small. The whole world is... like a graveyard.”

“Come back with us.”

He wished desperately that he could. It was hard for him to leave her behind, but she had to built another life for her. Away from Torchwood and dead friends. He just hoped that the 456-Regulation would protected her sufficiently from all those enemies in the government that wanted to harm them. If not for Rhys and the baby, he would have taken her with him.

“Haven't travelled far enough yet,” he rejected her beseeching offer. “Got a lot of dirt to shake off my shoes.” He looked up into the ink-black, nightly sky. “And right now, there's a cold-fusion cruiser surfing the ion reefs just at the edge of the solar system, just waiting to open its transport dock.” Jack averted his gaze from the stars to look at her again. “I just need to send a signal.”

Gwen suddenly threw him a sad chuckle, and, to his surprise, pulled his vortex manipulator from her coat pocket. “They found it in the wreckage. Indestructible. Like its owner.” Well, not really Dalek-proof, but whatever. Thankfully, he accepted the leather wristband, and put it on. “I put on a new strap for you.”

“Cost me fifty quid, that,” Rhys bemoaned from the background to clarify his point. 

“Bill me,” Jack chuckled before turning to Gwen once more, serious again.

“Are you ever coming back, Jack?”

“What for?” he asked stifled, and he felt his eyes tearing up, as did Gwen's. 

“For me,” she replied promptly.

For a long moment, they looked each other firmly in the eye, Gwen beseechingly, Jack tired and crestfallen.

“It wasn't your fault,” she explained with a shaky voice when the first tears found their way down her cheeks. 

“I think it was.”

“No!” 

“Steven... and Ianto. And Owen and Tosh and Suzie and...” He breathed in deeply, evading her gaze, sighing. “All of them... because of me.”

“But you saved us,” she desperately tried to change his mind, and grasped for his hand with trembling fingers. “Didn't you?”

“I began to like it. And look what I became. Still...” Once again, he took a deep breath. He felt, as if his emotions were choking him. “I have lived so many lives. It's time to find another one.”

Determined, Jack stepped back from Gwen, and activated his vortex manipulator.

Gwen sobbed hysterically, and frantically tried to sway him. “Look... they died. And I am sorry, Jack, but you cannot just run away.” She shook her head in denial. “You cannot run away!”

“Oh yes, I can.” He felt his molecules disintegrating, as the teleporter of the ship logged in on him. “Just watch me.” 

Then Gwen was gone, and he found himself in the inside of the ship. He met John's gaze before mutely turning from him. He had to be alone for a while now.

 

“We are flying with this thing instead of using my vortex manipulator why?” John grumbled, while the repercussions of the asteroid storm in which they were caught rattled them pretty badly.

“Didn't you say it's broken?” Jack pulled up an eyebrow, scrutinizing him pointedly out of the corner of his eye.

“I didn't say it's broken,” John fended him off while being busy with holding on. “It can just be a bit bonkers since your brother messed with it. I'm working on it. ‘S almost fixed.”

“Whine, whine, whine,” Jack mocked. “Still talking like a Time Agent. Will do you some good to travel per ship like everybody else instead of taking the shortcut.”

John grunted cynically. “I'm not immortal. So, I'd like to reach our destination before becoming old and grey.”

Jack grinned at him, for just a moment being his old self again. “Just enjoy the fun.”

“This is not my idea of fun,” he grumbled with bated breath, repeatedly casting withering glances outside, watching the deathly chunks of rock wearily as they sometimes flew by a little too close for his liking.

“He just takes us to Galaxy Three anyway. We can take your vortex manipulator from there.”

“As for that; why do you want to go to Galaxy Eight?”

Jack shrugged. “Why not? They have some good asteroid bars and amusement planets.”

“I didn't pull you out of this pothole on Earth just for you to continue in space.”

“No, no.” Jack shook his head. “I'm over this.”

“Oh really.” John glared at him sceptically.

Jack shrugged. “I'm feeling better since leaving Earth. Out here, everything is... it's better. I've changed pretty much a long time ago. The Doctor and everything I experienced with him made me a better man. But somehow, being out here, the old thirst for adventure overcomes me.”

“Tss, all right. Won't stop you from becoming an intergalactical James Bond...” John stopped, he couldn't help himself scrutinizing Jack with a certain scepticism. 

“It will take a while before I'm okay again,” Jack explained quietly. “Maybe decades. I don't know... if I leave Earth and all of my memories of it behind, then I should probably leave behind the man I've been there, too.”

“Hmhm,” John made, not really convinced. “I liked your old self, really. Was much more fun. Since living on Earth you're a real buzzkill, but... ‘m not sure if it helps playing the sunshine, and pretending to be untouchable.”

“Works pretty well for you,” Jack retorted promptly. “And for the Doctor. I know that we are cowards by pretending to be immune to all of this, but you know for yourself that it protects us.”

Unfortunately, John couldn't think of anything to reply because Jack was completely right. “Okay,” he finally said, looking wistfully out of the window. Everything was calm out there again. He'd been completely oblivious to it... “Then... do your own thing. Do everything that makes you feel better again.”

Jack didn't miss John's pointed stare with which he fixed him which was why he nodded solemnly. “I promise. I won't let myself go again this much. Six months have been enough for that. For the rest of my life, I have to think of something else to distract myself with. But, hey, the universe is big. All doors are open to me.”

“Yeah,” John agreed softly. “You're probably right.”

 

Two days later, their ride dropped them off at Ellis Station, the artery of Galaxy Three.

They struggled through the throng of busy travellers until they found a secluded corner in this galaxy's biggest space port (a pretty difficult task to undertake).

For a few moments, Jack simply stared out of the window, watching the arriving and departing big passenger transport ships, huge cargo vessels, and small private cruisers which all buzzed in front of the blackness of space out there. By the time their metallic hulls had reached the point where they were almost out of sight, they hardly were distinctable from the glittering stars around them. He enjoyed the silence around him, the hectic activities going on at the space port a far away hum.

John stood next to him, and observed him heavy-lidded instead of focussing his attention on the proceedings on the other side of the pane.

Suddenly, Jack nodded brusquely, and, turning away from the window, swung his backpack over his shoulder again. “You ready?”

John responded with a similar grave nod. Then, without hesitation, he activated his vortex manipulator, and Galaxy Three lay behind them thousands of light years just within seconds.

They looked around at their destination, drinking in the changes as well as the familiarities, and remembered their good, carefree times together they'd spend on this space station before they finally faced each other in awkward silence.

“So, then. Good luck.” John looked away uncomfortably. He didn't want to leave Jack, but they had a deal. He himself was just another reminder of Earth for Jack, a reminder of dead friends. It was better that way.

“You too.”

John bit his bottom lip before he took heart, and stepped up to Jack, kissing him shyly on the cheek. It seemed a lifetime ago since he'd done this last, back then in Cardiff. By now, they both had changed. One of them for the better, the other for the worse.

“I'll find you if necessary,” he mumbled, and Jack took breath to probably protest that he was done with Earth. But in the end, he didn't say anything. Instead, he only nodded jerkily, his sense of duty too deeply rooted inside himself after all. 

John nodded at him for the last time, and then activated his vortex manipulator once again.

 

Notes:  
*A reference to the end of 'Another Thought' from HippyChick1964


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 02 – Mirror, Mirror**

Within seconds, John materialised back on Earth, relieved to take the much faster way back.

He looked around. Beside an old woman who motionlessly stood before a grave a few meters away, flowers in her hand, there was no one to be seen. John stared down at the grave before his feet. The headstone was modest, made from grey stone, with just one single vase standing in the grass under the headstone containing a bouquet of white roses, probably from Ianto's sister. John sighed. No monumental tomb for Jack's lover like the one Alexander the Great had constructed for his Hephaistion back then. Instead there was only this plain grave amongst all of this meaningless nobodies.

The carved inscription, Ianto Jones August 19, 1989 – September 28, 2009, seemed to mock John, standing now before everything that remained of this young man who'd brought down Jack Harkness. At the same time, it was like an incentive to actually carry out his plan. Seeking out Jack, he'd originally just wanted to comfort him, but the utter desperation which had pervaded every fibre of Jack's being was something that even John found hard to bear. And that's when he asked himself, why the hell he should accept this fate. They were former Time Agents for God's sake, it had been their damn job to correct the time line. And as it was now, John definitely thought it fundamentally wrong. But he just couldn't travel into the past, and bring Ianto back with him. Against what everyone thought, he wasn't stupid. Neither was he irresponsible. Of course, he was aware of creating a time paradox if Ianto was ripped out of his time. Sometimes, it didn't have any consequences when people fell through the Rift into another time. That's natural fate, but human intervention... You just had to look at Jack. A time paradox himself, he could never become mortal again without dooming the whole universe.

Fortunately, there were other possibilities than the past. That's what a parallel universe was for! There were millions, maybe even billions of other realities next to this one, all of them neatly stacked next to each other like pages in a book, if you wanted to visualize it. And like in a book, the page before or after the page you were currently on were more similar to it than the first to the last. Nobody ever really explored it, but in theory, the universes which were near your own were the ones having the most similarities to yours.

That's for theory.

Problem was to control which universe you got to. A long time ago, the Time Lords were able to with their precious TARDISes. But since their demise, the last TARDIS wasn't capable of safely travelling between the universes without ripping the protective barriers apart. Ha! Bloody discarded phone box. Nobody needed this thing. Because a vortex manipulator was still in perfect condition to travel to other universes (they just didn't advice it back in the Time Agency). Not to mention if you had something useful like sheer infinite Rift energy to boost your travel. Still, the problem was how to steer where John wanted to go. He wasn't really crazy about visiting ten universes which didn't even have a Ianto Jones until he finally found one with him. After all, he didn't have an immortal life for this endeavour. So, he just had to find something which led him into the right universes straight away. Somewhere, there had to be one that fit into his ideas so that he could return with another Ianto for Jack.

And this was the sole reason he now stood before Ianto's grave. If he scanned Ianto's grave, programming his vortex manipulator with Ianto's DNA, it should work just like a route planner, leading him into the right universe. It's quite plain. His plan was as simple as it was brilliant. Jack would be proud of him.

 

When John re-materialised, he was surrounded by dim light which let him barely see his own hand before his eyes. But he didn't have to. His vortex manipulator had led him directly to the right location. He grabbed at one of the cardboard boxes in the shelf before him, and noiselessly pulled it down. Even without his vortex manipulator telling him, he instinctively sensed that the content of the box was what he was looking for. If you used a thing like this for such a long time as himself, you got a sense for it at some point. With a satisfied noise, he pulled Grey's vortex manipulator from the archivist box, immediately placing the box back at its place. And in the next moment, he was gone again from the high security warehouse UNIT used as one of its archives. Stupid UNIT. Didn't even notice his presence. A little disappointing to miss out on the action of a confrontation, but on the other side, John really had better things to do at the moment.

He studied the wristband in broad daylight when he returned from London, and re-materialised in a side alley in Cardiff. Seemed to have survived the explosion undamaged. He had no idea if the same went for the frozen Grey, but he hoped that the holy terror blew up together with the Torchwood Three Hub. Nobody needed UNIT stashing the brat away somewhere, only for them to accidentally thaw him some day.

Deeply in thought, John turned the smooth leather in his hands. He wondered why Jack hadn't taken it, and swapped it for his broken one. Would have made a lot of things easier, up to preventing Ianto's death in the first place. But he probably didn't think of it at the time. He'd just lost half of his team after all.

They all could really count themselves lucky that UNIT hadn't managed to find out how to use the vortex manipulator as of yet after they'd salvaged it from the ruins of the Torchwood Three base. They probably were busy with more interesting Torchwood toys which'd fallen into their hands as that they were interested in an old leather wrist strap which, at first glance, wasn't even something interesting like a weapon. Good for John. He'd rather make sure, and take a second functioning vortex manipulator with him. You never knew which consequences all this universe-hopping would have on the normally resilient device. If everything went to his satisfaction, he would give the vortex manipulator to Ianto – whichever Ianto he would ultimately bring with him – so that he could skip all throughout the galaxies with Jack into their honeymoon.

Full of zest for action, he strolled through the streets of Cardiff's downtown area. Although the Rift passed right through the city, he wanted to take advantage of the strongest spot, just to be sure. The full power of the Rift would catapult him into the next universe like a hot seat. And this, in turn, would spare the vortex manipulator which then only had to steer.

He turned into the direction of the harbour. A strange feeling overcame him as he stepped onto Roald Dahl Plass. The spacious place was still completely under construction, but at least the huge hole where the Torchwood Three basis had been had been filled. At the moment, they worked flat out to restore the promenade of the bay as well as the water tower in its midst. None of these dumbasses realised that they trampled around on the most active point of a Rift in space and time which, because of the explosion half a year ago, currently acted still a little aggressively. But this didn't have to concern John. For him, only the Rift energy was important which the Plass emitted, and which made the display on his vortex manipulator go haywire.

He carefully checked the programming in his vortex manipulator for one last time, then he activated it.

 

Full of enthusiasm, he looked around. Unmistakeably, he stood on Roald Dahl Plass – an undamaged Roald Dahl Plass. So far, so good.

How close this universe was to his own and therefore, how similar they were, he couldn't tell. He hoped that the vortex manipulator would automatically work forward from inside to the outside – the chance of success was, in his opinion, greater in one of the more similar universes than in one completely different from this –, but when there were time and space at work, you never knew.

Pleased, he crossed the Plass, heading in the direction of the harbour.

At the promenade's railing, he stopped though, deeply in thought, and looked from the tourist office situated under him to Cardiff bay before him.

Maybe he'd proceeded here a little too hasty. After all, he just couldn't stride in there without knowing what expected him. He didn't even know if his other self already'd appeared in this universe.

But well, he wasn't Captain John Hart if he let something like this stop him.

John adjusted his jacket, and marched decisively down the stairs to the entrance of the tourist office. But after entering, he immediately realised that he was in the wrong place because it wasn't the familiar figure of Ianto Jones that greeted him from behind the counter.

“Hi, may I help you?” the young, but completely unfamiliar woman behind the counter smiled at him. 

“Ehm, maybe.”

In a split second, John recovered from his shocked surprise, swaggered to the young woman, and put on his most charming smile. “I'm looking for a friend. I heard he works here. Ianto Jones.”

The brunette frowned, and shook her head. “Sorry. It's just me working here. I don't know a Ianto Jones.”

“Och, well.” Smiling apologetically, John shrugged. “Then I must've been mistaken. See ya.”

He wanted to scream as he stepped outside again. This turned out to be more difficult than he'd thought. So much for working from inside to the outside.

 

After a few scans with his vortex manipulator, he finally found Ianto in London. With Torchwood One. Obviously not destroyed, thus, Ianto and Jack would never have met.

He called the whole thing off ultimately upon following Ianto into a park where he met an attractive dark skinned woman with a push chair.

Great.

Off to the next universe.

 

It got worse in the next universe. There, John tracked Ianto down in Cardiff, but he wasn't with Torchwood. Damn it! Instead, Ianto owned a small book shop in Cardiff downtown. Nice for him, but this one was even more useless to John than the one in the previous universe. He didn't have the time or leisure to make Jack tempting for this Ianto. Furthermore, Jack had no use for an untrained, boring bookseller who likely couldn't even fire a gun decently. If you wanted to live at Jack's side, self-defence was a basic requirement. He refused to take on all this effort just for Ianto, after delivering him to Jack, to get eaten by some alien!

 

John couldn't really tell if his next stop was better or worse. But anyway, a dead Ianto Jones was even more useless to him as one who was alive, but had never heard of Torchwood and/or Jack Harkness before.

He guessed, he was getting old because the sight of the dying boy who bled to death in Jack's arms right before his eyes really wasn't a nice view. Even less was witnessing Jack's anguish and grief.

He could have stayed at home if he'd wanted doing this to himself. In the end, he couldn't help every Jack... unfortunately.

 

But much more unbearable was being the only one giving comfort to the dying young man during his last minutes alive, in a world in which Jack was only a friend and his boss, and instead of being with Ianto when he stared death in the face, giving him comfort deep down in the collapsed Torchwood archives, he was rather more concerned with Gwen's well-being.

 

Little by little he got fed up with this whole shit. He didn't want to witness this any more, all this death and sorrow and desperation. He just wanted a happy end for Jack. And Ianto. Was that too much to ask for! But he stubbornly ignored the broad hint from fate which seemed to tell him with all this failures that maybe it wasn't to be, and just carried on.

Frustrated, John stumped through London, beginning the search anew. Gradually, he realised, he couldn't just simply kidnap Ianto from any universe, and leave the Jack there without his lover – and he didn't want the Iantos who'd never met Jack, they were boring and inept, and had to be moulded first. So, what use was his search any more? He'd never find a universe where he'd find a not boring, not Torchwood Ianto without a Jack. Jack was the fixed point which he somehow never could bypass. Maybe he should have taken the dying Ianto with him which he had held in his arms deep down in the Torchwood archives as he died. Perhaps he could have brought him to a time, on a planet where he could have been saved.

Thinking about this in retrospect wasn't of any use though, he'd never find his way back into the same universe. Which was why he'd just have to continue his search. He wouldn't give up. Not yet. He owed it to Jack. Maybe through this, he could make up for the whole Grey thing. At least a little.

Confused, John stopped. Somehow the readings on his vortex manipulator were inaccurate. Thus far, Ianto's hardcoded DNA had routed him accurately, but now the readings were suddenly off. He couldn't explain this data by any stretch of the imagination.

Furrowing his brow, he slowly moved on, following the hazy signal.

Just like in a bad movie, an old newspaper drifted just before his feet all of a sudden, and caught on his leg. Frustrated, he cast it off, and faltered, catching a glimpse of the date and the headline. The newspaper reported on a massacre in Thames-House during which everyone got locked in, and died a horrible death under mysterious circumstances...

But...

Frantically, he searched for the date on the LED-scoreboard on the next bus stop.

The newspaper was six months old! But here and now, it was the same date as at home, like in all of the other universes, too. March 23, 2010. That would mean Ianto had survived despite the 456 coming to this universe, and despite the massacre in Thames-House. Should Jack and Ianto have found their happy end at least in this universe? Could it be that fate hadn't claimed him in this universe? But then, what were those strange readings about?

He quickened his pace again.

Ten minutes later, his vortex manipulator, despite the odd data, had led him to a rundown pub in an equally as rundown area of London. Still confused, but determined, John entered, immediately stopping again. Sitting at the bar was Ianto Jones, and at first glance, he was in a similar pitiful state as Jack had been a few days ago.

Suddenly he was overcome with an intense feeling of déj à -vu. Something wasn't right here. Having a bad vibe about this, John stepped up to the bar. 

“Ianto?” He reached out for Ianto's shoulder, but in the same moment, he pulled back without touching him. 

Tired, bloodshot eyes riveted on him, dilating in shock as Ianto recognised him. “You,” he whispered incredulously. Then, after staring at John for a few perplexed seconds, he turned away from him and to his alcohol again. “What do you want?” he asked aggressively. “You here to make fun o ’ me?”

“Why would I do that?”

“How should I know.” Ianto gesticulated dismissively, staring into the glass before him bitterly. “Always seemed to have fun seeing us suffer.”

“I've changed,” John explained softly.

“Hm, sure.”

Taking a deep breath, John sat down next to Ianto.

“Ianto... where's Jack?”

Flashing, scathing, dull blue eyes turned on John, making him cringe involuntarily.

“He's dead.”

There wasn't much that could surprise John, but these three words shocked him to the core.

“That's impossible!” he retorted automatically which Ianto acknowledged with a bitter sound before raising his glass to his lips. 

“Couldn't it have been _him_ disturbing me then?” the young man muttered into his glass. “What shall I do with you?!”

John ignored this strange comment. After all, the younger man was dead drunk. “What happened?” he instead demanded to know.

Ianto shrugged much too casually, but John didn't miss the sudden trembling in Ianto's shoulders.

“We were in Thames-House,” he began haltingly. “Suddenly, the 456 released this virus. Everyone was trapped. I felt it spreading through my body rapidly. It felt like my insides were boiling. It suffocated me...” Ianto shuddered, and a sympathetic shiver passed through John. “Jack... Jack tried to save me. He can do this, you know. Did it once before... through a kiss. He gave part of his life energy to me.”

“And?” John urged him on impatiently when Ianto once again lapsed into melancholic silence.

Once more, Ianto shrugged, continuing with a monotonous voice, “Then I woke up. On the floor in this gym. All around me dozens of bodies, all of them covered with a red blanket. Gwen was there. She looked at me, as if she'd seen a ghost. Can't fault her. Actually, she was there to hold vigil by my body, and to wait for Jack to wake up. But...”

“He never did wake up,” John concluded.

Ianto shook his head. “No.” His eyes filled with tears which he tried desperately to hold back. “He was so still. We sat there forever, waiting for him to wake up, just like every time. But he didn't wake up.”

“He transferred his immortality to you,” John breathed. He still couldn't believe it, but it was the only possible explanation. 

“Yes.”

“Are you...”

“Am I sure? Yes.” Ianto looked deeply into his eyes. “Died two times since then.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah... oh.”

Now John understood why his vortex manipulator had had such problems to track Ianto down. Becoming immortal had to have messed with his DNA, or his molecular structure, or whatever. He should probably be thankful that the DNA/molecular energy had even led him in this universe.

An immortal Ianto...

A dead Jack...

John stopped short as he realised what this meant.

He did it! All the time he'd hoped for a universe like this one!

He practically vibrated with excitement. He wanted to jump up, and hug Ianto, and immediately offer him his deal, but he restrained himself because Ianto wasn't in any condition to think about anything rationally. The boy was about to keel over. First, John had to sober him up.

“Hm, well... I'm really sorry.” Clumsily, he put his hand on Ianto's shoulder. “Wouldn't it be better if you sleep a little for now? We can talk tomorrow.”

Ianto fixed him with a sceptical gaze. “You still here in the morning?”

John blinked. “Ehm, sure. Why shouldn't I?”

“Should've thought that I couldn't get rid of you that easily!” he sighed in exasperation, but still nodded afterwards. “If you say so.”

“Good... good. Where're you stayin’?”

Ianto pointed to the ceiling with his chin. “Here. They rent rooms.”

“Okay, then come on.”

John kept a close eye on the younger man as he climbed from the bar stool, prepared to catch him should he collapse. On unsteady legs, Ianto stumbled in the direction of the staircase. Only when they reached the steps of the last floor, John had to prop him up to climb the stairs.

“Why did you stay in London?” he asked, by this time dragging Ianto up the stairs more than propping him up.

“Couldn't go back to Cardiff,” he explained in an increasingly slurred voice, his face buried at John's shoulder tiredly. “'M officially dead. and... my flat... Jack and I, we lived there together. None of us wanted to be alone after Owen and Tosh's deaths. It happened somehow.” 

“So, for the last six months you drown yourself in booze to forget him?” John groaned while he unlocked the hotel room door after fishing the key from Ianto's trouser pocket, shoved him inside, and pushed him onto the bed.

The younger man uttered a protesting as well as confirming grunt when he landed ungently on the mattress where he instantly curled up.

Stunned, John stared at the normally so composed and well-groomed young man before him who now was only a shadow of his former self. It was absurd, bordering on hilarious, how he found himself in a situation that was so similar to the one he'd found Jack in.

“Yep,” he sighed, letting himself sink into the highly uncomfortable armchair in the corner whereas Ianto already slept soundly. “You two fit perfectly.”

 

The night had been an uncomfortable one for John as well as Ianto. John woke up with an aching back for which he blamed the armchair, and Ianto with one hell of a headache.

Ianto blinked against the gloomy, but nonetheless painful morning light shining through the window, and he let his glassy eyes roam through the room. He blinked more heavily when his gaze came to rest on the armchair in the corner, more precisely, on the man occupying the armchair momentarily staring his way with a thoughtful look.

“You're still here,” Ianto groaned, holding his pounding head.

“Course, told ya so.”

Ianto wished for John to keep the volume a little down. “Thought, I had imagined you.”

Ah, now the comments Ianto'd made yesterday started to make sense. He threw him a grin. “Not me, sweetie. Everything's real about me.”

Ianto blinked again, and sat up abruptly, the adrenaline coursing suddenly through his body at the moment much stronger than the pain in his head. Instinctively, he wanted to grab his gun, but he didn't have it any more. He swallowed heavily, never letting John out of his sight. “You're real!” he breathed, astonished.

“Told ya so.” John wrinkled his brow, and stood up. “Got you more badly than I thought.”

He started to feel uncomfortable under Ianto's thunderstruck, wary gaze. What's the matter with him?!

He got it little by little when the young man still looked at him in complete bewilderment.

“Ehm... what's my humble self up to in this place?” he asked innocently.

“You're dead.”

“Ah.” He'd feared as much. No wonder Ianto believed to have seen a ghost. He returned Ianto's impassive gaze in feigned gloom. “Weeell, what a waste.”

“Tragic,” Ianto countered drily. “Then I'm sure you'd like to tell me now who the hell you are.”

Okay, the boy took this pretty cool so far. Maybe John's explanation wouldn't be accompanied with as much hysterical shrieking and disbelieving babble as he feared.

“I'm from a parallel universe,” he promptly explained.

Ianto simply pulled one eyebrow up. “Okaaay... that's new, even for us.”

“It's not even difficult, provided you have one of these.” He held up his wrist to show Ianto the vortex manipulator. “In working order of course.”

“Hm...” Contemplatively, Ianto looked at the vortex manipulator, causing John to immediately pull his wrist out of Ianto's reach. “Oh no! Forget it!”

“But we could save him!” Ianto cried with sudden desperation, his voice sounding choked, and tears gathered in his red-rimmed eyes. “His was destroyed at the explosion of the Hub, but yours...” 

“It's impossible!” John cut him off harshly. “Endeavours like this can easily cause a time paradoxon which would rip apart the whole universe.”

“But...” Ianto gnawed on his bottom lip pensively. 

“No! That's not what I came for.”

The young man glared at him, his spirits suddenly revived. “And what did you come here for? Why the hell can't you simply leave me alone!” He sprang up, and darted through the room restlessly.

John watched him for a few seconds, disgusted by Ianto's self-pity. “You think Jack would have wanted for you to lead such a life?” he eventually exclaimed tauntingly, staring at Ianto in disbelief. “He didn't save you for that.”

“I don't want to be saved!” Ianto screamed back, ignoring his pounding headache, and spun around facing John. “I would have preferred for Jack to be alive, as it should be! The world needs him, but not me for sure.”

“Yeah, at least you're right about that.”

“Oh, thank you so much,” Ianto griped sarcastically.

John shrugged. “What. Just agreeing.”

Ianto stared at him a moment longer, a haunted expression in his eyes, before he turned away from John, and dejectedly curled up on the bed. “I don't want... what am I supposed to do without Jack?!”

John stood up, and drew nearer to understand Ianto's muttered words that were shot through with sobs. Hesitantly, he sat down next to him on the edge of the bed.

“I'm nothing without him,” the young man whimpered faintly.

“Don't talk such bullshit, and calm down. You'll get over it. We've all been through this once you've fallen for him, but you'll get by. Unless...”

Blinking, Ianto looked up at him. “Unless what?”

“If you really see it that way... then maybe I could help you. That's why I'm here.”

Ianto sat up again suddenly, and fixed John with a wild stare. “How?! Can you bring him back after all?”

John shrugged apologetically. “Not that, but...”

“But what?!” Gradually, Ianto had enough to worm every word out of John. If the other man didn't spill his beans immediately, he would squeeze it out of him.

“I can take you to another Jack. A Jack who just lost his Ianto, indulging in his sorrows as well.”

Ianto blinked in confusion, and stared at John for a few seemingly endless seconds.

“That's the reason you're here,” Ianto whispered finally. “You want to find a replacement for your Ianto.”

John nodded, preparing himself for the next temper tantrum. Most people got a bit sensitive being considered just as a replacement. It totally slipped John's mind. God! He sighed inwardly. People just were so impractical and touchy.

But to his surprise, Ianto only asked, “Why would you do something like this?”

Perplexed about this composed reaction, John needed a moment before he could answer. “You didn't see him. When I found him in this filthy bar a few days ago...” He broke off, and looked around the shabby room. “Well. Maybe you can imagine it after all.”

Ianto pressed his lips together, and nodded.

John returned the nod with a sigh, and reclined against the headboard tiredly. For a short moment, he just wanted to close his eyes. It wasn't that long ago, two days tops, and yet he felt like being on the road for weeks without having slept even once.

He opened his eyes again, and fixed his gaze on Ianto who still looked at him eagerly. “Think what you want, but Jack means something to me. And having to see him like this... I simply couldn't stand it.”

“Have you been... to other universes?” Ianto asked hesitantly.

“Yeah.”

“And? What did you find there?”

John looked deeply into Ianto's eyes. “Death.” He shrugged. “That, or you've never even heard of Jack Harkness. Which wasn't helpful either.”

Ianto had to swallow heavily considering this image – both of these images. “Why me?” he whispered in the end. “Why did I survive in this universe of all things, and Jack had to die?”

“I don't know. But... in my universe, he's a fixed point in time. To reverse his immortality would cause a paradox in time, destroying the whole universe. Apparently, this isn't the case here. And I don't believe you to be the new fixed point. The vortex manipulator would have shown that, but we can ask Jack's odd Doctor as far as I'm concerned should we meet him someday.”

“That's pretty complicated,” Ianto mumbled. “Fixed points and paradoxes in time...”

John laughed cynically. “It is. I don't understand it even myself most of the time although it's been my job to work with things like that.”

“So...” Ianto stopped contemplatively, and stared into the distance for a few moments. “Am I right in assuming that you want to take me back to your own universe?”

John exhaled in relief. At last they got to the point. “That's the plan, yes.”

Ianto furrowed his brow. “Why should I trust you?”

Tired, John shrugged. “You don't have to. Just stay here, and wallow in your misery. But remember: Your life's a bit longer than planned from now on. And eternity can be pretty lonely.”

The thought of an immortal life in loneliness in which he would lose ev'ryone who'd ever mattered to him, or would matter, let the blood in Ianto's veins turn to ice. He couldn't do it. He didn't know how Jack did stand this for all those years, but he himself didn't want to go through this.

Jack...

At the thought to see Jack again so unexpectedly, the ice in his veins suddenly melted, giving way to blissful warmth. Hope. His heart beat madly as he was suddenly seized by a yearning which hurt him physically.

He looked at John, his eyes gleaming with steely determination. “I'll come with you,” he declared with a firm voice. “I'm officially dead, nobody'll miss me here, and without Jack, there's nothing left for me.”

John puffed out his breath in relief which he hadn't even realised that he had held it in his anxiousness. He couldn't believe his luck!

“But first, I've gotta say goodbye to Gwen.”

Not that again!

 

To John's chagrin, he had to witness the tearful farewell this time because he had teleported Ianto and him directly to Gwen's isolated home where she and her husband hid from the world. After she'd punched John reflexively upon seeing him, threatened him with her weapon, and screamed at him hysterically why the heck he was still alive, she, after Ianto'd defused the situation, eventually threw herself into Ianto's arms, sobbing loudly. Seemed a little flooded with hormones, the old girl.

When Ianto calmly explained his plans to her, John stepped a little away from her for safety's sake just to be out of reach of her fists. However, she was content with glaring menacingly at John. What was wrong with her. Wasn't as if he dragged Ianto with him against his will.

“You can't go,” she sobbed, turning back to Ianto, and clung tightly to Ianto's hand.

“I have to,” he replied beseechingly.

She let out a few more sobs before she brushed away her tears, and nodded emphatically. “I know.” Gwen put her other hand on Ianto's, too, and squeezed tightly. “I wish you the best. Give him a hug from me.”

“I will.”

Oh please. The husband also grunted sarcastically in the background.

 

John breathed out in relief as they finally stepped out into the cool night air.

The farewell over, they finally could be on their way. John was only glad that Ianto left it at Gwen, and that he didn't want to say goodbye to his sister (who thought he was dead anyway, so what the hell).

“Here.”

Ianto stopped shouldering the backpack which contained the few clothes he'd bought with the stolen credit card back then, and stared in confusion at the wrist strap John held out to him. “Is that...” Hesitantly and reverently, he took the vortex manipulator.

“Hmhm. It's Grey's. I thought you would have a better use for it than letting it rot in a UNIT basement. Who knows what they'd get up to with it.”

Ianto nodded absent-mindedly, and put the strap around his wrist. A momentous feeling lay in the air, and for a second, he involuntarily held his breath. He'd touched Jack's vortex manipulator hundreds of times, but this was something completely different again.

“It... works?” Unsure, Ianto looked at John. 

“Perfectly. Jack's currently dashin' somewhere through space. Makes your life much easier if you don't have to travel with a space ship all the time to find him.”

“Space?!” Ianto stared at John with big eyes. Although Jack always had said that he'd have loved to show him the universe, they'd both known that it never would come to be. It had been wishful thinking on both parts. That it should really become true now filled Ianto with euphoric excitement on the one hand, but on the other with dread, too. He wasn't afraid of the danger that lurked there, this was one thing Torchwood had given him at least a foretaste of. No. He was afraid of the unknown. And not only the unknown of space. The uncertainty of this whole new life he'd step into filled him with fear.

But John who was used to a life in space didn't seem to notice Ianto's tension because he typed away on his vortex manipulator, and finally looked questioningly at Ianto.

“Ready?”

Ianto swallowed heavily, but he nodded bravely. “Ready.”

John grabbed his hand, and put it on the vortex manipulator. “Hold on tight.”

And suddenly, everything spun around Ianto.

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 03 – A Second Chance**

“Hm...”

“What?” Concerned, Ianto switched glances between John and his vortex manipulator which the other man stared at intently while Ianto himself desperately tried to keep the contents of his stomach. He hadn't expected for time travel to be this intense, but John had assured him that he would get used to it fast. Hopefully. 

“We missed our destination for a few weeks,” John murmured, and shrugged unconcerned. “But just into the future. If we'd landed in the past, we would have to be careful not to cross ways with past me, but this isn't a problem. Just delays our finding Jack. Who will be long gone, and not at the place I dropped him off.”

Ianto made a sceptical noise before he looked around for the first time. “We are in Cardiff?!” he exclaimed surprised.

John looked up from his vortex manipulator casually which he shook a few times forcefully, all the while cursing Grey's name under bated breath. “Sure,” John replied. “The device has been programmed to the vibes of this universe to find our way back, to be precise, on the place I set out from. Works similar to the home-button in a navigation device.”

“And... you made use of the Rift energy, didn't you? That's why Cardiff?”

John threw him a grin. “Exactly. And now come on. We've gotta find Jack. I can show you how the vortex manipulator works while we're at it.”

Frantically, Ianto grabbed John's wrist. “And if we get separated?!”

John made a dismissive hand gesture. “Don't worry. I'll find you. As long as you wear the vortex manipulator, I'll track you everywhere in the universe.”

“Can we find Jack this way?”

“Afraid not. His is too broken. He can't jump in time nor teleport, and they of all things are the signals another vortex manipulator can register. I think I can calibrate my vortex manipulator so that it can receive and locate other signals from Jack's vortex manipulator. This may only work on a short distance, though. So, we will have to make some inquiries to find him.” John operated some buttons on the vortex manipulator. “Come here. I'll show you now how we get to Appledome. I dropped him off there. See, you have to press this button...”

Ianto attentively listened to John's explanations, and committed everything to memory precisely. He didn't really feel like landing in the wrong place at hist first try.

“What's Appledome?” he asked after John finished his first instructions which gave Ianto at least a basic understanding of this technology.

“A space station that's one huge bar.”

Ianto grunted in amusement. Figured. But he didn't say that out loud but followed John's instructions to enter the coordinates of this space station, and then to teleport them there.

 

Much to his surprise, Ianto noted – after everything stopped spinning around him – that it seemed to have worked. John made a satisfied noise while he gave Ianto time to compose himself.

With big eyes, Ianto looked around in astonishment, eagerly taking it all in while he followed John through the giant bar. He felt like being in one of the big casinos in Las Vegas, only the dimensions of this room went beyond everything he ever could have imagined.

They left the floor with gaming machines and gambling tables behind them, and drove up where the longest bar Ianto'd ever seen extended before them, a host of alien clientèle sitting at it which even his long years working for Torchwood couldn't have prepared him for. And it was nice to not have to hunt these aliens down for a change. Ev'ryone here just wanted to spend a pleasant evening. Or day. Or whatever the time was currently.

He continued taking an astonished look around while John asked one of the barkeepers about Jack.

Only the fourth employee could remember Jack (Normally, Jack Harkness was hard to forget, and even less once you've been in bed with him), and could even tell them what Jack's next destination had been while the light blue skin of the young man turned violet in bashfulness as the memories of his night with Jack caught up with him.

Ianto wasn't sure if he should be amused or jealous. He came to the conclusion that he didn't have the right to be jealous since he hadn't even met this Jack, but that didn't change the fact that the feeling irrationally stayed put in the back of his mind.

But he didn't have time to think about this because just after finishing their conversation with the barkeeper, John took them to another place with which the scavenger hunt for Captain Jack Harkness began.

 

While they looked for Jack over the course of the next two days, John showed Ianto worlds which he couldn't have imagined even in his wildest dreams. The space station had been fascinating, but still, it had been something he could compare to places on Earth. But the exotic planets that Ianto was introduced to were something you simply couldn't imagine, that's how fantastic they were. 

The afternoon of the second day, after following countless hints of Jack's whereabouts (while Ianto could work on perfecting his use of the vortex manipulator), John suddenly let out a triumphant whoop.

“Got him!” he cried excitedly, and hammered on the little display of his vortex manipulator. “There's his vortex manipulator.”

Ianto, forgetting all the euphoria about all the new, fascinating impressions in the face of seeing Jack again, hurriedly grabbed John's wrist, and in the next second, they re-materialised in a living room which John immediately identified as a hotel suite.

Without caring much if it really was Jack's room, and that they maybe should exercise some healthy caution (after all, during their search they'd learnt that Jack currently worked as a kind of Consulting Agent, carrying out miscellaneous – in part quite dangerous ones – assignments which was why he changed his location constantly), John strolled self-confidently in the direction of the bedroom.

“Darling, I'm home!”

Ianto threw the smugly grinning man an exasperated look, but followed him through the dimly lit hotel room (which somehow didn't really differ from one on Earth, he realised a little disappointed).

“John?!”

Ianto shuddered as he heard the familiar tenor, and he caught himself crossing the living room a little faster to get to the bedroom from where Jack's voice had come.

“Hey!” John exclaimed who reached the bedroom first. “You look so tasty again. Have recovered nicely.”

Now Jack came into Ianto's line of sight, and his breath caught. He had to work up all of his self-command to not throw himself into Jack's arms. Instead, he simply stayed standing in the door frame for a moment, absorbing this sorely missed, marvellous sight like a man in the dessert who'd finally found water. Jack shrugged, and even threw John a small grin though it was streaked with melancholy which Ianto could clearly make out even in the badly lit room.

“Out here it's easier, far away from...” In this moment, Jack looked up, and spied the man standing behind John in the shadows. “Ianto,” he breathed, and stared at him with big eyes. 

Ianto returned Jack's intense gaze, and for a moment, time seemed to stand still. They wanted to fall into each other's arms immediately, and never let go of each other, but even this superhuman powerful urge wasn't taken into account by their suddenly frozen bodies so that the only thing they could do was stare at each other.

“Oh yeah,” unconcerned, John barged into the emotionally charged moment cheerfully with a touch of smug self-satisfaction in his voice. “I brought you a treat.”

“How,” Jack whispered, but didn't let Ianto out of his sight for even one second. In the end, his feet involuntarily carried him the last few paces to Ianto until only half a metre separated them from each other. They let their hungry gazes slide over each other, taking everything in of which they thought that they'd lost it forever.

Jack swallowed heavily, and took a step closer still, so close that he could have touched Ianto. He lifted his hand to do exactly that, but that's when he felt it. Something was wrong. It was Ianto, his familiar face, his smell, but something wasn't right even though he couldn't put a name to it. Something in his gaze... the innocence which had always met Jack from Ianto's eyes was gone. “You're not Ianto.” His voice suddenly took on a cold and biting note, and he turned to John with an accusatory stare.

“Who is he?!” he barked enraged, pointing at Ianto who he ignored all of a sudden.

John shrugged. “Don't get your knickers in a twist, mate. This is Ianto Jones.” He exchanged a look with Ianto before focussing on an agitated Jack once more. “Just not...  _your_ Ianto.”

“What do you mean?!” Jack growled . “I thought...”

“What?!” John surged up too, peeved. “Did ya think I would be so stupid, and travel into the past to bring him back to you? You know perfectly well what that would have done to the time line. One day destiny would have come to get him to bring the time line back on course, and through this, the 456 may have won. Or the paradox would have destroyed the whole Earth before that.”

Frustrated, Jack clenched his teeth. If he'd had a functioning vortex manipulator, he'd taken into serious consideration to travel into the past to save Ianto, but John was right. In his egoistical pain, he could have destroyed the whole universe by ripping Ianto out of his time. But at least he could have warned his past self about Ianto's death as well as telling him how to defeat the 456 – this at least wouldn't have caused a paradox, only changing the time line. Maybe then he wouldn't have lost Steven and his daughter as well. But it was of no use to bemoan the what if. In the here and now, he was rather interested in the mess John had got himself into this time.

“Then tell me who he is,” he demanded once again, this time with endeavoured calm. “Is he a changeling? An android? Is this your way of cheering me up? Nice of you, but unfortunately, I can't appreciate the gesture.”

“I'm still here, you know,” Ianto butted in a little annoyed, and he glared at Jack when he finally deigned to look at him again. 

“Okay, then I ask _you_ : Who are you?”

“If you'd only let one of us explain,” Ianto pouted with irritation. “I am Ianto Jones. But I'm from a parallel universe.”

Jack blinked. First at Ianto, then at John. “Parallel universe?!” His gaze finally settled on John. “What did you do?!”

“Nothing which would have any consequences in the other universe. And before you ask, he came willingly.”

Jack unwittingly let out a mocking, somewhat hysterical sounding laugh which he turned Ianto's way. “What, the Jack in the other universe didn't fit your bill any more?”

Ianto glared at him coldly. “He is dead.”

This answer sobered Jack with a single blow, and he stared at the young man disbelievingly. “That's impossible.”

“I wish, but otherwise I wouldn't be here now,” Ianto replied through clenched teeth. “ _My_ Jack tried to save me from the 456-virus.” Ianto's gaze clouded over suddenly, and in this moment, he just couldn't look at Jack any more. “He tried to revive me through a kiss which actually worked. But he died in my stead.”

“Did he...”

“Transfer his immortality to me?” Ianto abruptly looked deeply into Jack's eyes. “Yes.”

Jack had to swallow heavily once again. “You... are immortal?”

Ianto nodded.

“Right,” John eventually called into the oppressive silence during which the two men simply had continued to stare at each other, and clapped his hands business-minded. “Okay, I'm off then. I've fulfilled my part in setting it right again, now it's up to you.” He grinned at both men who blinked at him perplexed, clapping them both on the shoulder encouragingly. “Happy reunion... or better, getting to know each other. Whatever. Have fun, I know I will. It's been ages since I've been on this recreation planet. Forgot how much fun you can have here.”

And with that, he was through the door, and the two immortals were left alone with each other. For a few seconds, they still stared at each other before they set into motion simultaneously, hurrying after John.

They managed to intercept him only just before he was through the door of the suite. Outraged, Jack cornered him, and forced him up against the door, glaring daggers at him.

“Have fun?!” Jack shouted shakily. 

Confused, John blinked. “Ehm, yeah. Sure. That was the point of all this, wasn't it? I wanted to bring him back to you, so, there he is.”

Jack pushed away from John, and threw his hands into the air in exasperation while he paced up and down before him, upset. “That's so typical for you. Do you think if you bring me another Ianto all will be okay again?! The big Happy End?!”

“Actually, that's what I thought, yeah,” John defended himself in a snit.

“You just can't go, and interchange us!“ Ianto tried to explain although he had to restrain himself tremendously so as not to scream – although more out of hysteria in his case. “We aren't some dead pet that the parents simply exchanged for another in the hope the child won't notice. It doesn't work that way!”

“What's the matter with you two?!” John screamed now, too, not understanding anything any more. “You're happy to see each other again, so what.”

“Yes, granted,” Ianto had to admit. And he was. He had been so happy seeing Jack again. Even if it had only lasted a few seconds before the rude awakening came.

“No, it's not,“ Jack cut in. “This is no reunion. We're strangers to each other.”

“And?!” Furious, John shook off Jack's hands which had curled up into fists in the front of John's T-shirt. “Maybe you didn't notice because you were so out of it in your mourning that nothing didn't matter to you on your self-destruction trip, but I've seen you both in your darkest hours. I saw your yearning for each other, and how you would have done ev'rything to quell this yearning.” He glared at Ianto. “I wanted to help Jack, yeah, and during my search, I simply could have dragged you in our universe to simplify things, but you came willingly, Eye Candy. You were so broken and rattled in your grief that you would have done everything to see Jack again. When I told you where I'm from, you didn't give a shit that it's not your Jack you would see again. You should've thought about that sooner.”

Ianto pressed his lips firmly together because John was right. He'd been so desperate that he really hadn't cared which Jack he would see again. He just wanted Jack. But now as this other, foreign Jack stood before him, he only now realised what he had done. This wasn't his Jack, not his universe. Maybe he shouldn't have come here.

But on the other hand:  _Here_ ,  Jack was alive. And in his universe, he would be alone. Without Jack, and the only immortal til the end of time. Here, he could have Jack as well as a mate for all eternity...

No, he couldn't go back. It didn't matter that this wasn't his Jack. The longing inside of him simply was too strong for him to leave him again. Even if there never would be anything between them, he simply needed him. He needed  _Jack_ , period.

“Of course we were happy at the first moment,” Jack patiently tried to – if not really successfully – hammer into John's skull. “But it's an illusion, nothing more. You didn't bring back my dead partner, but a stranger. And I'm not his Jack, but for him, I'm a stranger, too.”

“You should look at this a little more superficial, don't question ev'rything, and simply say thank you for once, ungrateful pack.”

And with that, John reached back, punched first Jack, then Ianto lightning-quick and unexpectedly in the jaw before he stormed from the room furiously.

The two men stood bend over for a few seconds, cradling their aching jaws before Jack stood up again, moaning, with the firm intention of rushing after John. But Ianto's hand closing surprisingly firmly and adamantly around his biceps held him back. “Let him. There's no use in blaming him.” He let go of Jack's arm. “I'm here now, and we should make the best of it.”

Jack grunted unhappily, but didn't follow John. “He could take you back into your own universe.”

Helplessly, Ianto shrugged. “He's right, you know, subconsciously I knew what I'm doing when I agreed to come here. And I'm sorry when we dropped this on you so unexpectedly. If you want, I go, but... I hoped that now, I at least had someone with whom I can spend eternity. I don't know if I can be as strong as you, and can stand being alone forever.”

Jack let out a bitter laugh. “You don't have a choice.”

“But I do now,” Ianto persisted.

Jack looked at him searchingly for a while, and finally nodded. “You're right,” he said astonished, because little by little he realised that he maybe really didn't have to spend his immortal life alone. The idea was more than irresistible. It was overwhelming. Everything suddenly slotted into a whole new perspective, his whole life. “I... would love for you to stay.” He was surprised how serious he was with this, where he had wanted to bash in John's head not five minutes ago for pulling off this fucking stunt. He looked at Ianto inquiringly. “If you really want this. What about your home, your sister?”

Ianto shrugged. “She manages pretty well without me. She thinks I'm dead anyway . T he thought of never seeing  _you_ again was what I couldn't bear.” Exasperated, he closed his eyes. “ _Him_ . Bugger. That's so damn complicated.” 

“I know. I'm feeling a little out of my depth, too,” Jack confessed with an exhausted smile.

“If it's a comfort to you, if one day you should get on my nerves too much, I still can go back.” Chuckling, Ianto raised his left arm to show Jack the vortex manipulator.

Jack blinked in shock, and reached out with trembling fingers. “Where did you get this?!”

Again, Ianto shrugged. “From John. It's your brother's.”

Still completely overwhelmed, Jack got closer, and stared at the leather strap around Ianto's wrist. “It works,” he breathed, and for the blink of an eye, he did want nothing more than use the vortex manipulator to really go back in time. But equally as fast, he discarded this overpowering wish again, and accepted that it would be too risky, no matter how badly he wanted to enfold his Ianto in his arms again even at the cost of Earth's children. The whole universe was at risk here after all should he take one wrong step, accidentally ripping apart the time lines as a result.

“Ehm, yeah, it does.”

Jack tore his gaze away from the vortex manipulator, and directed it towards Ianto, full of sudden enthusiasm. “This gives us a huge bunch of possibilities,” he grinned.

Ianto had to laugh because Jack's impish glee was contagious. “For now, I'm through with crossing the space-time boundaries with this thing. It's a weird feeling.”

“At first it is, granted, but we wouldn't have to travel inconveniently per space ship.” All of a sudden, he realised the irony that only a few weeks ago, John had held the same argument against him, but in the meantime, he got around a lot, and for now, he too had enough of space ships, instead rather wanting to avail himself of the luxury of a vortex manipulator again. 

“But isn't precisely this the thrill with all this for a greenhorn like me,” Ianto retorted, a similar gleam in his eyes as Jack's who broke out into light-hearted laughter when his conversation with John seemed to continue repeating itself.

“Okay, but as soon as novelty's charm wears off, we'll take the more comfortable means of travel.” 

“Deal.”

“Oh, and if we should ever meet the Doctor... don't let him see this. One broken vortex manipulator is more than enough.” 

Ianto nodded, a little more serious again. “Understood.”

“Good...” Unsure, Jack broke off, and watched Ianto who returned his look equally as unsure. Silence settled over them while gradually, the jollity of the moment died down, instead making way for discomfort. 

“So...” Jack cleared his throat nervously. “Have we just...”

“Wait.”

Confused, he blinked at Ianto.

For a little while, he chewed on his lower lip before he worked up the nerve to keep on talking. “No matter what happens next... can I... can I at least hug you?”

“God, yes.” And with this, Jack moved. 

In a matter of seconds, they were in each other's arms, losing themselves for a few moments in the illusion that all of this had just been a bad dream. That the 456 never came to Earth, and that they would wake up any second now from this horrible nightmare.

But then, reality caught up with them cruelly, and they realised that they weren't on Earth, in Cardiff, but on a planet millions of light years away from Earth, and that they actually were strangers to each other, no matter how much appearance, and sense, and scent may fool them.

With an uneasy feeling, they abruptly parted from each other again, and at first didn't dare to look at each other.

“That was uncomfortable,” Jack mumbled eventually.

Sheepishly, Ianto rubbed his arm, and turned away from Jack. “Yep. It somehow is.”

Jack followed Ianto with his gaze, how the young man looked forlornly in the direction of the window and out over the lush, exotic forests stretching for miles below the hotel room window. “You probably imagined all of this a little differently,” he sighed.

“Oh yes,” Ianto laughed humourlessly. “I just wanted you... him back. I didn't think further. I was... not at my best after...”

“Me neither,” Jack confessed, his tone of voice gentle and sympathetic. He found the courage to step up to Ianto, coming to a stop right behind him. He didn't touch him, but they were so close to each other that they could clearly feel the other's body temperature through their clothes.

For a few long moments, they stared together in the distance.

“What shall we do now?” Ianto asked quietly after a bit while still observing the vast forests below.

Jack sighed, and Ianto shuddered as he felt Jack's breath caressing his nape. “I'm... not sure,” the former Time Agent replied. “First of all, I have to finish this mission. That's why I'm here. After...”

Ianto nodded absent-mindedly. “While we searched for you, they told us you're something like a freelance Time Agent now... just... without the time part.”

“Somehow, I had to distract myself. I didn't want to tumble back into this black hole I was stuck in on Earth. And this is what I'm good at.”

“To get into trouble?”

Jack laughed. He'd missed Ianto's dry humour. “That too, yes.”

Slowly, Ianto turned around to him. He really had to pull himself together because they were so unbelievably close that temptation ran through every fibre of his body. “I could help you... if you want.” Uncertainly, he looked up to Jack and, for the moment, ignored his closeness forcefully. “Two are better than one for these missions. Especially if one has a functioning vortex manipulator...” He clearly heard the begging tone in his own voice, but he didn't care.

Jack nodded enthusiastically. “Absolutely. That would be a great help.”

Ianto returned his nod. “That's good... very good.”

“So, we stay together, yeah?” Jack pressed on hopefully, a little anxious himself. 

Ianto nodded absent-mindedly while he held his gaze fixed on Jack's collarbone. “No matter what happens next, we stay together,” he confirmed. He could hear Jack's relieved exhale – physical manifestation of how he felt himself at the moment –, and he ventured a look at the older man. In the split second before Jack's indifferent mask slammed into place again on his face, Ianto could clearly see the hope and vulnerability in Jack's gaze. So, life as an immortal wasn't just the great adventure after all like he had wanted to make them believe more than once. Now at the latest, after he'd had a glimpse behind Jack's façade, Ianto would have decided for good to stay with Jack if he hadn't been sure beforehand.

He threw the older man a hesitant smile, and was rewarded in turn with one of Jack's which radiated pure relieved, heart-felt happiness. It was a smile like this that had always made his knees go weak the most.

“Come.” Suddenly, Jack took Ianto's hand, and led him to the living room suite below the window. “Let's talk, yes? I want... I want to know everything about you.”

Ianto nodded, and followed Jack willingly.

They got comfortable on the spacious couch, and, at first a little haltingly, started talking.

In the beginning, they found it hard to talk about their respective partners' fate, and Jack still couldn't believe that it was possible to transfer his immortality to another person (probably, in the history of every universe, it had been a whim of fate why he was all the more thankful that him of all people should benefit from Ianto's calamity), so he pelted Ianto with questions about his experiences. But when he saw how much it hurt the young man to talk about it, he hurriedly changed the topic. It was done, and nobody could change a thing about it any more. So, maybe they just should let it all rest.

Instead, they started to compare their lives in their respective universes with growing curiosity. Mostly, it were small things which distinguished their worlds, but Jack thought them all the more momentous. A sting went through him when Ianto told him that he and his Jack had lived together, and fierce remorse shot through him when he thought about how he'd snubbed his Ianto cold-heartedly, and told him that he couldn't stand the word 'couple'. In the aftermath, he desperately wished to have given them both the chance of a real relationship together. But he realised that he hadn't been ready for that. Only now, after Ianto's death, he was mature enough for it. It was too late for his Ianto, but he himself had gotten a second chance undeservedly, and he wouldn't forfeit it, whatever the cost.

To learn that his grandson wasn't spared even in the other universe, but instead there it had been Ianto who'd been forced to take Jack's role as executioner, almost broke his heart as well. Obviously, he was doomed to bring death over those he loved in every universe. He wanted to wrap Ianto in his arms to seek solace and warmth, but he didn't dare. This was too new for them, and they still were strangers to each other. He couldn't expect Ianto to shoulder his sins, not after everything he'd done to him, in this or in the other universe...

When the planet's two suns outside slowly began to descend, they ordered their dinner at room service without interrupting their conversation for too long which they carried on until late into the night.

 

After Ianto tried to discreetly suppress a yawn for the third time already, Jack thought it time to call it a night. “Come on,” he said softly. “You're done, and I could use a little sleep as well. Let's talk more tomorrow.”

Ianto nodded sleepily, and rubbed his eyes, making Jack's heart beat faster for a moment at the sight.

“What about your mission?” Ianto asked while rising painstakingly with stiff limbs. 

Jack jumped up, and put his arm around Ianto's shoulder to steer him in the direction of the bedroom. “I'll take care of that tomorrow. You should try to contact John again.”

In the course of the evening, he'd tried futilely to reach the other ex-Time Agent who stubbornly blocked every means of communication however, redirecting them constantly to the answering machine on his vortex manipulator.

Tired, Ianto shook his head. “Let him be. He meant well.”

Jack huffed indignantly. “But I'd really like to give him a good telling-off. Aren't you angry?”

“How? I knew what was going on. I'm just sorry that we sprung this on you so suddenly. But he really just wanted to help.”

“I know,” Jack sighed, and pushed Ianto gently down onto the bed before he knelt in front of him to take off his shoes and socks. “You're probably right. It really might have been just the shock that made me so mad.”

“Then... I can help you with your mission?” Ianto blinked at Jack carefully from under lowered lids, but the older man just nodded much to his relief. During the past few hours, Jack had told him a lot about his recent missions so that Ianto was confident that he would be able to help him bring the current one to a close. A jewellery theft, intergalactic or not, wasn't really a huge challenge, but rather something that could have sprung out of a Sherlock Holmes story. 

He froze when he suddenly felt Jack's fingers at his belt buckle, and he looked up questioningly. Jack returned his gaze calmly, and carried on. Ianto swallowed, but he let him do as he liked when he realized that there was nothing sexual in Jack's touch, but that he only wanted to help him getting more comfortable for the night. He wasn't sure if he could have endured sex with Jack at the moment, even if he yearned for him every waking second. His mind was too torn for this because on the one side, he knew with absolute certainty that Jack was dead, but on the other hand, he had him right here before him. He just hadn't managed within this short time to process these two facts, and merge them to a clear picture in his head. Until that happened, he did want nothing more than get to know Jack better, and with time, it would become apparent what may develop between them. 

He tried to assist Jack when he stripped him of his trousers and shirt, but his movements were uncoordinated and slow from being tired so that Jack shoved his hands away gently but firmly. Ianto sighed contentedly when Jack finally stripped himself hurriedly, and pulled Ianto with him into the middle of the big bed. Jack's arms around him, his smell in Ianto's nose when Ianto put his head down on Jack's chest was the most beautiful feeling he'd had for a long time, and with a sigh, he snuggled deeper into Jack's embrace. He felt Jack's lips on his forehead in a gentle kiss, and his breath in his hair as he whispered a soft “good night”.

After returning it, Ianto was asleep within a few seconds, and for the first time in half a year, he felt completely safe again.

 

He blinked, warm sunbeams waking him up the next morning. For a moment, Ianto thought he was at home, in their flat, in their bed, Jack's heartbeat under his ear, and cocooned by his smell.

But then he opened his eyes, and he spotted the strange room and the two suns on the other side of the panorama window. And all at once, everything that happened descended upon Ianto again.

Strangely, he felt totally calm and well rested despite this realisation, and he had the feeling that he hadn't been haunted by nightmares last night which, in the last six months, he'd only managed to escape through a lot of alcohol.

Relaxed, he wound his arms tighter around Jack's waist, and looked up to him, meeting Jack's clear blue eyes which scrutinised him intently.

“Hey,” he smiled.

Jack returned his smile. “Hey.”

“How long 'r you awake?” Ianto asked, having to suppress a yawn.

“A while.”

Ianto made a protesting noise when Jack turned onto his side, dismantling their embrace. But then, he turned onto his side as well, laying opposite each other so that they could look each other in the eye while they talked.

“It's strange, suddenly needing less sleep,” he mused while he couldn't turn his gaze away from Jack. Last night, he'd been too exhausted, but in the past months, he hadn't needed much sleep, and most of the time, he only fell asleep driven into unconsciousness by the high alcohol level in his blood.

Jack reached out, and absent-mindedly caressed Ianto's naked shoulder, making him shudder blissfully. “You'll get used to it. However, you'll get bored rather quick, but you know this already from dealing with me.”

A roguish smile suddenly spread over Jack's lips, and he let his hand glide down to Ianto's hip to pull him tightly against him. “You'll have to get a little more creative to put up with this in the long run.”

Ianto froze when Jack pulled him against his body, he could feel his morning erection through his underwear at his hip. He was hard, too, and he trembled as he pressed himself against Jack instinctively.

Jack's grin vanished suddenly, something like awe and budding hope due to their nearness glittered in his eyes instead.

But instead of giving in to the urge to touch each other, they simply lay opposite each other, their bodies pressed tightly together, just to feel each other while they looked deeply into each other's eyes.

They enjoyed the pleasant tingling spreading through their loins in a constant pulsing as Ianto shuffled that little bit closer towards Jack who breathed in harshly at the feeling, but he still let his hand rest on Ianto's back instead of shoving it between their bodies.

Ianto'd lost any sense of time whatsoever while they lay there, him drowning in the deep blue of Jack's eyes, but when he felt the urge to touch Jack become overwhelming, he broke their eye contact abruptly, and sat up shakily.

“We should,” he stammered uneasily, and dodged Jack's gaze. 

Disappointed, Jack sighed, but nodded regardless. “Yeah... the mission. I really should bring this to an end.”

They avoided eye contact when they climbed from the bed hesitantly.

“Do you want to,” Jack started, but Ianto waved him away.

“No, no. You can go first.”

Behind him, he heard Jack disappear into the bathroom, the automatic door sliding shut behind him with a hiss before, a few moments later, the rushing of water sounded through the door.

Ianto stumbled over to the window, and leant against the window frame, his arms slung tightly around himself. He trembled, and even the hot morning suns couldn't chase away the coldness inside of him.

It scared him how close he'd been to sleep with Jack. And although a nagging voice in his sub-consciousness asked him softly if that would have been such a bad thing, he didn't think it was such a great idea at the moment. It was frightening how fast he accepted this new Jack although essentially, he was a stranger. And this was what scared him. Their intense conversation last night had shown him how similar this man was to his Jack, but at the same time, how different they were.

They both still recovered from their emotional wounds they'd suffered. Sex would only complicate the whole thing. Even more if they only did it for illusion's sake. For Jack, it might be acceptable to just sleep together for intimacy, but for Ianto, sex never had been something he could be casual about. Before Jack, there was only Lisa, no dozens of anonymous partners with whom he spent a few excessive nights like Jack. It was Jack who'd shown him what passion really meant, but nonetheless, he wasn't somebody who would be comfortable with entrusting his body casually to a stranger only because it was fun. But it would have felt like this if he would have given in to Jack and himself. Though Jack wasn't really a stranger, he somehow was. He didn't feel uncomfortable in Jack's presence though... Even he himself couldn't describe this vague feeling. He hoped ardently that with time, when they were more familiar with each other, and no matter what would develop between them, this feeling would vanish...

Moaning in frustration, he leant his forehead against the window frame, and looked out over the exotic wilderness stretching out beyond the hotel's areal.

That they'd shared a bed last night by mutual agreement was another matter. They'd both needed it. The closeness and comfort of someone who knew what they were going through.

“Don't think about it too much.”

Jack's voice made him jump in surprise, and he whirled around. He knew from Jack's grave look and the tone of his voice that the other man knew, or at least guessed, what it was that made Ianto wrack his brain so desperately.

He swallowed heavily when Jack came nearer. Ianto breathed in shakily, and closed his eyes with fluttering lids when the smell of Jack's freshly washed skin paired with the odour of exotic fruits threatened to overwhelm him. He felt the heat Jack's body emanated, warmed by the shower water, and he trembled as he felt Jack's hand on his cheek.

“Don't think too much about it,” Jack insisted again.

The yearning shudder seized Ianto's whole body when he felt Jack's warm breath on his face.

“Just let it happen. We're together, and everything else... everything else will show with time.”

Ianto nodded in agreement, and opened his eyes again to meet Jack's tender, worried gaze. “Yes,” he breathed. “You're right. I'm sorry, ev ’ rything is...”

Jack smiled understandingly. “I know.”

“But you're dealing better with it.” Ianto wrinkled his forehead. “Is it so easy for you to simply replace him with me?”

It was unfair to accuse Jack of something like this only because of his reputation of being easy. He knew that it was the wrong thing to say when Jack took his hand from his face, and for a split second, Ianto could see the hurt glint flitting through Jack's eyes.

“I'm sorry!” he hurried to assure him, but Jack turned from him.

“It's all right,” the older man assured him in turn, but his voice was devoid of any emotion.

“Jack, please!” He hurried over to Jack, and clung to his shirt. “I didn't mean it like that!”

Jack smiled at him conciliatory, and caressed his cheek even when his tone of voice still sounded a little bitter when he answered, “It's okay. And no, it's not easy for me because I damn well know that you're not my Ianto, but I view you're being here as a second chance. I don't normally have that much luck in my life, and because of that, I'm willing to accept every ounce of what is good dropping into my lap unconditionally.” Jack's smile turned wistful, but he put his other hand on Ianto's cheek, too, and looked at him imploringly. “I know how you feel. Of course, this whole situation is confusing, and I don't know what you see in me, if you see me or him, or both of us, and I don't know either what you hoped for coming here, but you have to come to terms with it. Otherwise, it will drive you mad.”

In spite of himself, a stifled noise escaped Ianto, and he threw himself into Jack's arms impulsively. “I know,” he replied, breathing erratically. “Give me time, yes? Eventually, everything will slot into place in my brain.”

“You've got all the time in the world,” Jack reassured, and laid his cheek against Ianto's head in relief.

After a few long minutes, Jack parted from Ianto again, and shoved him in the direction of the bathroom with gentle force. “Go, and shower. I'll order breakfast, and then I'll explain how we proceed.”

Ianto nodded, glad that for the moment they could concentrate on the mission, shoving their agitated feelings to the side.

Hastily, he disappeared into the bathroom and under the shower.

 

After a hearty breakfast, they discussed their strategy to bring this current mission to its end. To be honest, there wasn't much to do any more besides carrying out Jack's plan to catch the thief in the act while he tried to sell the theft, and then to give the crown jewels back to the royal family of Gemini IV.

Ianto had his back, and deterred the thief from escaping through the back door when they made their way into the city after breakfast, and before he knew what was happening, Ianto, together with Jack, knelt before the royal pair who gratefully received back the crown jewels.

“Our luck that they didn't threaten us with a knighthood,” Jack joked when they left the palace, slipping their payment cheque into his pocket. “Let's eat something. I know a nice little restaurant downtown.” 

“Okay,” Ianto replied instead of answering with an anxious “like a date?”. No matter what it was, he looked forward to spend time with Jack.

The restaurant Jack brought him to was an intimate, lovely establishment, and Ianto delighted in tasting all the novel alien dishes whereas Jack watched him at it, equally as delighted about Ianto's zest for life. Except for breakfast this morning, Ianto hadn't really come to enjoy the culinary offers of this universe since he'd arrived here. The turbulent chase for Jack had been too fast as that they could have stopped for something as mundane as eating.

“The room is booked until tomorrow,” Jack explained during their return into the hotel long after midnight. 

“And then?” Ianto asked uncertain. By now, they were back at their suite, and for a moment, Ianto stood a little lost in the middle of the dark living room. But then Jack switched on the light so that Ianto had to blink for a moment, and he stepped up to him full of boisterous energy.

“Let's travel, yeah? I can show you so much!” Jack's sudden childlike enthusiasm was dampened for a moment, and he took Ianto's hands tightly between his own. “I wanted to show _him_ so much, but I never did. But I can show _you_...” Uncharacteristically shy, he lowered his gaze. “If you want.”

“Yes!” Ianto replied fervently, and Jack met his eyes with a hopeful, happy gaze. “He... he promised me many times, too, but we both knew that we never would see the universe together; our obligations, the daily grind... all this would have gotten in our way every time. So... yes. Wholeheartedly.”

Jack threw him an overjoyed smile before he took Ianto's hand, and pulled him into the bedroom.

 

This night, they once again sought the closeness in each other's arms, but somehow, it felt completely different this time. Maybe Ianto felt uneasy this night because he had figured a few things out since this morning, especially that he couldn't simply see his dead lover in this Jack here, no matter how badly he may want to. That wouldn't be fair to Jack, and, to be honest, neither to himself. But even if it was strange to suddenly be in Jack's arms, he needed his closeness regardless. He could only hope yet again that something would grow between them that would make them happy in the long run.

 

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 04 – For our sake**

The next morning, they left the hotel after a renewed extensive breakfast. Ianto followed Jack into the city where they took the next passenger transportation off the planet.

“Where are we going?” Ianto asked curiously, and watched in fascination how the planet got smaller and smaller outside until they were once again enfolded in the darkness of space.

“Do you trust me?”

Startled, Ianto looked at Jack. “Of course.”

Jack threw him a small, mischievous smile. “Then let yourself be surprised.”

 

If Ianto had thought Gemini IV. and the worlds he'd seen with John during their search for Jack to be exciting and fascinating and exotic, then he was disabused of this notion a few days later. Jack showed him worlds which were so beautiful and fascinating, that it was almost scary. He showed him the firefalls of Sagittarius VII., the emerald city of Oz (at first, Ianto didn't believe Jack one word that there should really be a planet named Oz, but was soon disabused of this notion, too), and the Library where they spent a whole four days before Jack had to bring him from the planet with gentle force, but not before promising him to return.

At first Ianto had communication problems, but apart from the universal translator which was part of their vortex manipulators, the older man taught him Intergalactical Standard, too, that Ianto mastered, thanks to his eidetic memory, in just a short time, right on schedule for their visit to the Library.

It also didn't hurt the progress of the learning process that Standard was pretty similar to English. Upon Ianto's astonishment, Jack had only answered with a secretive smile, “Where do you think English comes from.”

They didn't really meet other humans. There were many humanoid species throughout the universe, and some of them even looked pretty much like humans, but since humanity hadn't learned intergalactical space travel yet, hell, only knew that they weren't alone in the universe for a few years, the only other humans they encountered were time travellers. Cruise line companies like the one being responsible for the almost collision of the Titanic with Buckingham Palace back in 2007 made historical sightseeing cruises into the past. Ianto, being an archivist to boot and therefore having history in his blood as well, was fascinated by all the possibilities that would open up to humanity, and he made Jack promise him that some day, they would travel through time together, be it the past or the future.

But not only Ianto flourished under the experience. The travelling did Jack good, too, and he seemed to be his old, easygoing, charming self again, delighted to show Ianto the wonders of the universe.

Merely at night, the past haunted him when he woke up with a start from his nightmares, gasping and bathed in sweat, but feeling Ianto's comforting arms around himself immediately.

Sometimes, he was overcome by these depressing phases during the day, too, mostly when there was too much time for thinking during a flight. The only thing helping him out of this melancholy mood – when the memories of all those he'd lost plagued him –, was the certainty that he never had to be alone again from now on, that, although the curse of his immortality wasn't lifted, it was mellowed through the knowledge that there was one person he loved who would be there forever, even if he would have liked to spare Ianto this curse. As long as they gave each other strength, they could endure.

Ianto wasn't haunted as often by nightmares as Jack, but he, too, startled from sleep often enough with a stifled scream, the mental picture of Jack's lifeless body before his eyes until he could seek refuge in Jack's arms, and they both held each other shivering until morning.

After a while, they started to look for assignments once more. Travelling through the universe wasn't cheap, and even if they used the vortex manipulator for travelling by now, they still had to pay for lodgings and provisions. Aside from that, it was fun, and even Ianto who'd always been rather down-to-earth and deeply engrained, realised that he started to anticipate the thrill of their adventures. He imagined that it had to have felt just like this when Jack had been with the Doctor, free from every convention and barrier, the universe spread before them, only waiting to be explored.

Oftentimes, it were only little things, like the theft of the crown jewels on Gemini IV. back then – for which they charged their client heavily. But, on the other hand, there were people who desperately needed help all over the universe, and on no account did Jack want to fall back to his old ways of being a con man who cashed in on the need of others. So, in this cases, they helped where they could, and most of the time they could indeed. After all, there were few things which could stop two immortal, battle-hardened men.

The first three weeks they spend together were one big, free adventure.

But then came the terrible dictatorship of Rana Pretorios.

Then came the day Ianto died.

 

It was a refugee from Rana Pretorios who tracked them down on Paxos, pleading for help. It seemed as if they had earned a reputation over the last weeks in certain circles, which was why the young Pretorian did his utmost to find Jack and Ianto. The governmental council of Rana not only enslaved their own people, but those of their twin planet, too, to produce all of the riches of the two planets; Valuable metals and gems, noble gasses and stone oil.

On their way there by means of a smuggler ship, Jack asked himself angrily why the Shadow Proclamation didn't interfere. The profit earned from the produced goods probably was much too high as that anybody would care about the few inhabitants of the two planets. A resistance movement was ready in the underground, but they weren't enough and too badly equipped to bring down the council.

“You want to kill the council, right?” Ianto asked quietly after he had caught a glimpse inside Jack's backpack during the flight.

He grabbed the backpack full of explosives tighter, and nodded darkly before he looked Ianto in the eye gravely. “I know you didn't come with me to kill, and only the gods know what the Doctor would have to say to this if he knew, but someone has to stop these people.”

Ianto avoided Jack's gaze. “I know. But isn't there another way? There has to be someone in the Shadow Proclamation who's interested in the fate of this planet.”

“Sure, but we can't risk alerting the council if we trust the wrong person.”

Jack sighed, and put his hand on Ianto's. “You don't have to come with me. I can't ask this of you. Give me your vortex manipulator, and I'll teleport into the palace alone to place the explosives. I would like to know you are safe anyway.”

“Jack...” Ianto turned his hand under Jack's, and gripped it tightly. “You can't continue to treat me like I'm made of glass.”

“I don't...”

“Yes, you do,” Ianto gently cut his protest off. “I've noticed for some time now.”

Jack squeezed Ianto's hand, and made an unhappy sound. “I'm afraid for you. I don't want anything to happen to you.”

“And I'm not afraid for you, or what?” Ianto reached with his fingers for Jack's face, and lifted his chin so that he had to look at him. “I won't break. Not before, and now even less.”

Jack wanted to object anew, but he held back, just a choked sound escaping him. Jack knew that. He knew how strong Ianto was. Much stronger and more confident and better trained for a fight than his Ianto had ever been, his potential choked off before he could unfold it. In the last few weeks, he had seen it for himself how tough Ianto could be, and if he was honest with himself, it turned him on immensely to see Ianto that dominant. Only in rare moments, the same dominance had shown through with his Ianto, most of the time in bed, and it had turned him on then, too, but also made him unbelievably proud. Therefore, he knew that Ianto could take care of himself, but Jack couldn't prevent that, in the most inconvenient moments, he was gripped by crippling fear that Ianto would disappear one day, and may it be through Jack's fault, so that he would be alone again. Therefore, he  _had_ to hold Ianto tightly in his arms at night so that he was still there the other morning, and he  _had_ to treat him like something fragile, like something sacred, because otherwise, Ianto may shatter through his fault. 

He startled when he suddenly felt Ianto's lips on his own, and he looked at him with big eyes.

“I won't leave you, Jack,” Ianto reassured him wholeheartedly. “Look at it as a fixed point in time. That's the one thing you can always rely on.”

Desperately, Jack soaked up the sight of Ianto before it was his turn to bend down to Ianto, kissing him fiercely. “And I never won't leave you,” he promised in turn passionately.

“Then we'll do this together?” Ianto squeezed his hand encouragingly, and looked at him with a wondering, quizzical expression. 

Jack let out a shuddery breath, but he nodded affirmative.

 

It was a pitch black night when the smuggler ship whose crew was part of the Pretorian resistance as well landed in a secluded mountain region where the resistance had taken up quarters in the widely ramified cave system together with countless refugees that had managed to flee from the mines or factories where they had to work hard every day. By now, a whole city had sprung up down here, running on a simple but effective security and camouflage system as well as provide itself through cultivating resilient crop, fruit and vegetable. They even produced electricity through solar energy.

The unanimous elected leader was a tall man called Maximus whose imposing presence seemed to fill out the whole room. The dark skin of his heavily muscled arms and of his face was scattered with scars, signs of a hard life that he had led, just like all the others. He eyed the newcomers sceptically who stood out because of their fair skin in the midst of all the darker tanned people. But, he realised in relief, this fact would let them blend in perfectly with the palace slaves while infiltrating the palace because most of the servants didn't see much of the sun, and therefore were rather pale.

“Your reputation precedes you,” he greeted the two men, and only this fact alone didn't let him doubt this men's abilities to save his people because the younger of the two seemed pretty unremarkable and limp-wristed, and the older, with his handsome face, came over like a dandy who didn't take anything serious. They didn't look to him like warriors or assassins. 

“We won't disappoint you,” Jack replied gravely in greeting, allowing the intense scrutiny by Maximus calmly. 

“I hope so. We risked a lot to trust you, and bring you here.”

“You can count on us,” Ianto now spoke up, and looked firmly into the tall man's eyes. “We will do everything to help you.”

Maximus nodded jerkily. “That's enough for me.” He made an inviting gesture in the direction of the big stone dais in the middle of the room which seemed to be the heart of their base.

 

Maximus explained his plans to Jack and Ianto, and made them familiar with the palace's layout with the aid of construction plans on paper and holograms. The plan was to smuggle them inside the palace together with the explosive charges where they would install them in the council chamber. One of the resistance fighters who had been a servant in the palace would lead them. Now that they had the bombs, Maximus would have liked nothing better than to leave the whole endeavour to his people instead of the two strangers, but the fact that they both possessed teleportation devices made it seem like child's play.

“We're not proud of the things we plan on doing, we don't want to be like them, but desperate times take desperate measures,” Maximus explained darkly as he felt Ianto's calm, but nonetheless intense gaze fixed on himself, not really knowing why he felt the need to justify himself before this boy.

“I don't blame you,” Ianto stated. “I know what it's like to make sacrifices for the greater good.”

Maximus frowned, though biting back his sarcastic “oh really” because something in the young man's eyes led him to the realisation that he really knew.

“We're doing your dirty work anyway, so you don't have anything to feel bad about.” Jack's almost cheery but nonetheless sharply sounding tone of voice implied a warning for the future even if he condoned the seized actions this time, the details of the plan being even his idea. 

Maximus understood the warning, understood the responsibility he would have for his actions in the future which was the only reason why he didn't jump up, and kill Jack for this insult.

He nodded, and Jack returned his nod before they set about to put the plan into action.

 

Thanks to the hologram plans and the former servant's knowledge, Ianto had been able to program the correct coordinates into his vortex manipulator which made them materialise in a dark pantry early in the morning.

“Soon, the council will start with the meeting,” the young woman who accompanied them explained before they slipped cautiously from the pantry. “Beforehand, the servants will get the room ready. That's our chance. I will then give the signal so that none of the servants is still in the hall.”

They left the cupboard as well as the adjacent kitchen. Nobody paid them any heed when they walked through the corridors leading to the council chamber, clothed in the grey uniforms of the palace servants. Just before rounding the last corner, Elryn held them back to carefully look around the corner. She made a frustrated noise. “I can't come inside with you,” she hissed in explanation. “One of the guards knows me. Just follow the other servants going in. You won't attract attention.”

“Wait.” Ianto held her back by gripping her arm. “If they recognise you, why shouldn't they notice that we're strangers here vice versa?”

Elryn returned his gaze firmly, her hands balled into fists. “They only take notice of women.”

Abruptly, Ianto let go of her arm, and nodded, swallowing heavily.

“Good luck.” Surprisingly, she stood on tiptoe to kiss both of them on the cheek before she scurried back down the corridor. 

Jack and Ianto looked at each other for the last time, then they joined the stream of people passing them with cleaning supplies and dining carts. Their own card with drinks, the bombs hidden in-midst all the bottles, didn't attract any attention.

It was almost too easy to hide the small time fuse into the room which was why the left the assembly room after a while again with mixed feelings.

“Hey, you with the drinks cart.”

Thunderstruck, Ianto stopped abruptly, but then he bravely turned around to the guard who'd called him back with a questioning mien while Jack, outwardly calm, but despairing on the inside, continued on with the other servants.

“Bring us something to drink,” the man ordered, and Ianto, his gaze lowered, nodded quickly to hurry back into the kitchen. He only mustn't speak here, then everything would be all right. Maximus had impressed upon them the importance that they not speak under any circumstances. The Standard spoken on Rana Pretorios was heavily accented. Not being able to imitate this guttural accent would give Jack and Ianto away immediately.

“Don't go back,” Jack hissed when Ianto returned into the kitchen.

“I don't have a choice,” he replied calmly, and accepted the drinks from a kitchen hand. “They haven't arrived yet. If we blow our cover now, everything would have been for naught.” He threw Jack an encouraging smile. “I just take the drinks to them, and then I'll return immediately. You'll see, all will go well.”

Still sceptical, Jack accompanied Ianto to just before the council hall, hiding behind the corner of the corridor.

His gaze turned to the floor submissively, Ianto handed some drinks over to the two guards. One of them only grunted satisfied, and eagerly turned to his drink, but the other scrutinised Ianto with a disdainful frown. “You can go,” he told him harshly, and Ianto nodded in relief, already turning around when the man suddenly grabbed his arm roughly. “Answer me when I talk to you, slave,” he snarled at Ianto. “Show a little respect.”

Ianto swallowed, but he had no other choice than to answer, and he didn't stand a chance of copying the heavy accent of the Pretorians successfully. “Forgive me, Sir,” he replied softly, his gaze still focussed on the floor.

The man retaining him made a surprised noise, and the other lowered his bottle, baffled.

The grip around Ianto's upper arm tightened relentlessly. “Who are you!” the man screamed, drawing his weapon with his free hand.

“No one, Sir,” Ianto tried to placate the guard, but only provided them with more evidence that he was a stranger. The other dropped his bottle so that it smashed on the marble floor, and drew his weapon as well to point it at Ianto. 

Helpless, Jack had to watch from afar how they forced Ianto on his knees, and how he had to put his hands behind his head. To make matters worse, the council members neared in that moment so that Jack involuntarily laid eyes on the real enemy for the first time.

“This man is a stranger,” one of the soldiers reported grimly. “He's probably a spy.”

The councilmen fixed Ianto with grim gazes who had let drop all caution to stare back at them deviantly.

“Inside with him,” one of the councilmen ordered. “And round up the slaves. Somebody must have let him in.”

While one of the soldiers hurried away to get reinforcement, the other dragged Ianto into the council chamber, and forced him down onto his knees once more while searching him for weapons.

If he liked it or not, Jack had to accompany the other servants when the guards herded them into the chamber, and his heart sank into his boots all the more when he had to witness how the soldier handed over Ianto's vortex manipulator to the councilmen, and after that stripped him off the grey uniform jacket. The reason became apparent in the next second when the man received a whip from another guard, unfurling it nonchalantly. An ice-cold shudder ran down Jack's back.

He flinched when he suddenly felt a slender, trembling hand in his own. Jerkily, he looked over to see Elryn next to him. But she didn't look at him, only staring straight ahead at the happenings before her, her whole body frozen, and her eyes full of deadly terror. Obviously, she didn't have had a choice than to accompany the others into this room before she could have found a hiding place. Encouragingly, Jack squeezed her hand tighter, and hoped that they wouldn't be discovered.

“This man,” one of the councilmen spoke up, and pointed at Ianto while slowly striding up and down before the huddled servants, “does not originate from our planet.” The man grabbed Ianto's vortex manipulator and held it up. “I suspect he was able to teleport in here using this device, but he must have had help from the inside.” He fixated the people trembling with fear with a penetrating stare. “Before we'll get behind his motives, I want to know who brought him here.”

It seemed as if he scrutinised every single person after another while slowly passing them by.

Impassive, he raised one eyebrow. “No one?” A cruel little smile started to spread over his lips while two guards stepped forwards to grab Ianto's arms. “I'd hoped for this.” He turned to the guard with the whip. “Captain.”

The man grinned cruelly, lunged back with relish, and let it swish down onto Ianto's back.

Ianto cried out in surprise, otherwise just bravely staring ahead, his head held high.

Jack, hidden in the crowd, winced with every crack of the whip, and with every tremble passing through Ianto's body when the leather came into contact with his sore back, just wanting to avert his gaze. But he mustn't. He was the one who'd got Ianto into this trouble, the least he could do was bearing witness to what he'd caused.

Finally, the guard stopped, and lowered the whip, breathing heavily. His smile being almost ecstatic, he beheld his work, Ianto slumping weakly in the grip of the other guards in the meantime. They let him slide to the floor, leaving him be for the time being.

The captain looked up, right Jack's way, and he stopped short in amazement before a sleazy grin spread over his face.

“Well hello.” He stepped over Ianto's hunched form, heading in the direction of the servants. Before the man reached him, Jack realised that it wasn't his cover that was blown but Elryn's. 

Reluctantly, everyone made way for the captain, and Jack didn't have a choice but to let go of her hand while stepping aside as well if he didn't want to blow his own cover as well. The only thing he'd rather do in that moment though was putting his hands around this man's neck, and squeeze.

“It's a small world,” the captain grinned when he finally came to a stand-still before Elryn, looking down onto the much smaller woman. 

She trembled, and looked up at her tormentor with big eyes, tears ran over her cheeks, and she cried out when he grabbed her arm to drag her forward.

“It seems here is his accomplice.” The captain hurled Elryn to the floor before the councilmen. “She worked here, escaped a few months ago.”

“It was a mistake to return, child,” the councilman said in an almost mild mannered, compassionate tone of voice, but the coldness in his eyes belied his clemency. 

“Leave her alone,” Ianto gasped suddenly, and struggled to his knees. He stared at the councilman rebelliously. “She didn't do anything. The responsibility is all mine.”

“Oh, don't worry,” the captain grinned, causing Ianto's suspicious gaze to flit over him. “I'll take good care of her. We'll be completely undisturbed in my rooms.”

Ianto's hate filled “you bastard!” was drowned out in Elryn's hysterical “no!”.

Jack had seldom felt so helpless, but he couldn't do anything. Just as he hadn't been able to do anything but watch helplessly as Ianto died in his arms. He couldn't trigger the bombs, not now with all the innocents in the room. But he couldn't watch Ianto and Elryn suffer any longer.

But even before he could decide what to do, the councilman made an impatient hand gesture. “We've wasted enough time already this morning. We don't need the man any more, and as long as the woman survives so that she can lead us to the rebel's hideout, she's yours for the time being, captain.”

The captain bowed, throwing Elryn a suggestive grin before he drew his weapon, aimed for Ianto's head, and pulled the trigger.

Jack cried out desperately, together with all the other shocked people, but inside, he felt completely hollow when Ianto's body crashed to the ground, lying still, a gaping hole at his temple. As if on autopilot, Jack set into motion, his only wish was taking revenge before he could take Ianto's lifeless body into his arms, and never let him go again, but several hands grasped him, and held him fast amidst the general turmoil the panicked, screaming, and whimpering people still made. They had to know why he was here which was why they held him with them in their midst without mercy. He put up a fight, tried desperately to get free even if a small part of him that was still in his right senses knew that he mustn't betray himself.

A gasping intake of breath that got through to him above all the noise and through Jack's frenzy made him stop abruptly. Everyone present froze in shock as well, their thunderstruck gazes directed onto Ianto who struggled up coughing.

It was as if a switch in Jack's innermost part had been thrown at the sight because all at once, he was completely calm again and in his right mind once more, taking advantage of the general shock laying over the room at Ianto's resurrection. Only a few adjustments on his vortex manipulator were enough, and in the next second, a single bomb detonated at the farthest end of the room. People began to scream again, hurrying in the direction of the exit while the guards drew their weapons taken by surprise, and a few councilmen who had been closest to the explosion were thrown to the ground in the blast wave.

Jack forced his way through the fleeing throng of people to put himself between them and the guards. “Take these people away as far as you can,” he called out to Elryin who'd made use of the chaos to flee. She nodded, and hurried away.

The room started to empty, but now the guards came nearer. Desperate, Jack looked at Ianto who was cowering on the floor, still too dazed and weakened to stand up. Frustrated, Jack ground his teeth. He only had seconds. When the Guards reached him, it would be over. Suddenly a bullet tore through his shoulder, a second through his leg. He screamed, and searched for Ianto's gaze. The young man returned his gaze gravely, and nodded. Jack nodded, too, gasping in pain, and whispered an “I'm sorry” in Ianto's direction before he fired the explosives.

Then everything went dark around him.

 

Gasping, Jack woke up. He blinked, and sat up painfully. He lay in a hallway, the blast of the explosion must have hurled him out of the hall. His clothes were singed and bloody, but he himself was as good as new because of his death during the explosion.

“Ianto,” he rasped, and his worry about the younger man gave his tired body new fuel. Staggering, he got up, and stumbled in the direction of the hall entrance. Thick dust and smoke lay in the air, and he heard the faint crackle of the flames, and somewhere, from another part of the palace, the uproar of battle.

According to plan, Maximus seemed to have stormed the palace with his people, their pre-concerted signal the explosion. With this step, they'd gone for broke, placing their lives, their freedom, and the future of their people into the hands of two strangers. Jack didn't like how close it had been. There were too many things that had gone pear-shaped, and too much had depended on it.

But this did not lie in their hands any more. Ianto was now his first priority.

Gingerly, Jack neared the entrance of the assembly room, and tried to make out anything through the thick smoke. Dim sunlight poured over the ruins. That meant, the ceiling had at least partly collapsed. He had to be careful that he wasn't buried by the rubble if the rest of the ceiling should come down as well. For a moment, he saw himself transported back to the site of another explosion, one in an abandoned factory hall in which John and Grey had lured the team into a trap.

Angrily, Jack shook his head, and combed through the rubble.

The first thing he found next to the almost completely burned body of the first councilman, crushed by the collapsing ceiling, was Ianto's vortex manipulator. A few meters further, he discovered Ianto. Carefully, he pulled him from the debris, sank to the ground in relief, and just held Ianto tightly for a few moments. When Ianto finally woke up, gasping, and squirming in Jack's arms, he just held him tighter, and hid his face at Ianto's shoulder, tears trailing down his cheeks unimpeded.

Now he knew how Ianto felt every time he saw Jack die. It was a horrible feeling, and he had no idea how Ianto could stand this time and time again. Jack coming back to him had to have been the only thing stopping Ianto from completely losing his mind every time. For Jack, this thought really had been the only thing keeping his sanity together earlier, especially as he hadn't at this time been one hundred percent sure if Ianto really was immortal. He'd reckoned that Ianto wouldn't wake up again after the captain had shot him. But now... now he finally had the confirmation, holding Ianto's warm, breathing body tightly against his own, that he always would come back to him. Now, he finally was completely sure that he would never have to be alone.

Jack pressed his nose against Ianto's neck, and under all the biting stench of smoke and blood and sweat there was Ianto's scent, and for a few long, relieving minutes, Jack simply sat there, breathing in Ianto's smell, feeling the pulsing in his carotid artery, and his warmth whereas around them a dictatorship fell.

 

After both men calmed down, they left the scene of destruction behind them. The shots and screams had died down, so they could attempt to search for Maximus. They found him in the palace courtyard where he coordinated the takeover of the palace together with Elryn who was all right much to their relief.

They accepted his heartfelt gratitude, said goodbye to Elryn without giving her a detailed explanation of how Ianto could have survived, and then they left the planet to fend for itself. Now it was up to Maximus and his people to form a government committee to bring all the horrible deeds of the council to an end, replacing them through new laws for a better world. The news of the council's fall would spread lightning quick through the surrounding systems so that Jack and Ianto would be able to follow the developments for a while from afar.

Now, their only goal was to leave this planet behind them.

Ianto's vortex manipulator took them back to Paxos where they'd left most of their luggage before they had set out for Rana Pretorios.

The door had barely slid shut behind them, then they were over each other like in a craze. Ianto pressed Jack against the door, his fingers clenched in the scorched grey uniform jacket, and he crushed his lips against Jack's.

He'd made a decision. Finally, there was complete clarity in his head about what he really wanted even if it'd taken a few weeks, and him dying first to realise it. But what were time and death for them.

During this time, Jack had waited patiently for him, and was prepared as he now put his arms around him to kiss him hungrily, to gratefully take everything Ianto was willing to give him.

“I don't want to be a replacement for him,” Ianto clarified, gasping against Jack's lips. “And you are no replacement for my Jack.”

Jack shook his head before he pressed his lips against Ianto's again, demanding and fierce, and impatiently shoved the borrowed shirt from his shoulders. Urgently, he pushed his groin against Ianto's, and shivered blissfully as he encountered the same hardness which strained against the buttons of his own trousers. “You're not, no matter what others will think,” Jack moaned. “I...” He let go of Ianto for just a moment to be able to look at him, and become a little clear-headed again. Composing himself, he put his hands upon Ianto's shoulders. “I don't know what we are to each other. for the life of me, I can't explain it, but...”

Ianto nodded emphatically. “I feel it, too. It's something old, but at the same time something completely new, and...” He helplessly shook his head. “I don't know what it is either, but I think that it will work.”

Jack nodded exuberant before he, the situation cleared between them, crashed his lips once more upon Ianto's, shoving his tongue between Ianto's lips with a moan where it met Ianto's enthusiastically.

They really could not explain what it was that developed so rapidly between them. They both didn't feel the need to see a simple substitute in the respective other although they were so similar to their dead counterparts, and it wasn't survivor's guilt either which drove them into each other's arms. It just fit even though they couldn't explain it. For others, it no doubt would look as if they fooled themselves, just blindly replacing their partners, and now simply suppressing the truth. But it wasn't like that. With every second, they were highly aware what they'd lost, but somehow they managed to find this narrow edge to see the painfully missed and familiar old in each other on the one hand, and to discover, and explore the fine differences in their personalities making them to a completely different person on the other side.

“Come on,” Jack said breathlessly, and pulled Ianto with him. “Bed.”

They rather stumbled in the direction of the bed than walked because none of the two men was prepared to let go of the other for just one second while crossing the room.

A trail of hastily shed clothes testified of the path they'd taken, and when they reached the bed, Ianto vigorously pushed Jack down on it, and tore his underwear from his body. He knelt before him, and, as if in a delirium, bend down over Jack's crotch to take him hungrily into his mouth.

“Ianto!” Jack cried in surprise, and shoved himself into Ianto's hot mouth, pushing his shaking fingers into Ianto's hair. Ianto didn't care about Jack's half-hearted protests, instead only taking him deeper. Mercilessly, he swallowed around Jack's cock which made the Captain whimper, and gently massaged his balls with one hand. The other hand made its way over Jack's tight abdominal muscles up to his right nipple which he rubbed none too gently between thumb and forefinger. He looked up, and, satisfied, he noted Jack's head thrown back in laboured breathing, his bronze-coloured skin gleaming with sweat so that in the weak light his heaving chest looked like the undulating surface of a lake glowing dark golden in the evening sunlight.

Ianto felt Jack's blood pulsing through the vein on the underside of his shaft, and he pressed his tongue harder against it to feel Jack's heartbeat more profoundly. He felt the hot flesh in his mouth expanding, and the tender balls in his hand contracting. “Ianto, I...” But Ianto ignored Jack's warning, on the contrary, he enjoyed the sure signs of his approaching orgasm, and swallowed a last time around Jack's penis. Jack cried out brokenly, and at the same moment, hot fluid splashed into Ianto's mouth which he swallowed greedily without a second thought.

He kept Jack's cock in his mouth for a few seconds longer, enjoying the feeling of the heavy flesh on his tongue which remained hard in spite of the ejaculation. But Ianto was used to Jack's sometimes scary libido. 51 th century, according to Jack, about which Ianto had his doubts. If everyone in the 51 th century was like Jack, then humanity had to be stuck in a development stop because of too much sex. 

For a moment, Ianto played with the thought to take advantage of Jack's on-going hardness because he was overcome by the almost overwhelming need to feel Jack inside of him. But he discarded the idea almost immediately. He had other plans for Jack.

He let him slip from his mouth, and gripped his own erection for a moment tightly to stave off the impending orgasm before he crawled onto the bed where he lay down on Jack. Instinctively, the other man wrapped his muscular legs around Ianto's hips so that their erections slid together. But instead of sliding his hand between them to bring them to completion with his hand as would have been the fastest way to quench the burning desire inside, Jack needed something else this very moment to feel that Ianto really was with him.

“I need you,” Jack pleaded breathlessly, and clawed his trembling fingers into Ianto's arms. Beseechingly, he looked up at him with a feverish gaze. “Please.”

In answer, Ianto bend down to him again, and kissed him once more. He needed this union as much as Jack which was why he didn't waste any more time, and fumbled for Jack's backpack lying beside the bed. He had to detach himself from Jack for a second to rummage around for the lube he knew Jack carried with him (he was Captain Jack Harkness – of course he was prepared for sexual antics). Jack whimpered unhappily, only the thought  _why_ Ianto let go of him temporarily held his frustration at bay. Contentedly, he received Ianto in his arms again a few seconds later, who held the small tube tightly in his hand. From now on, they would need a bigger stash, thought Jack, before even thoughts like these came to a complete stand still as Ianto's slippery fingers suddenly slid into him. From there on, he wasn't able to think of anything. His world had reduced itself to the weight of the warm body covering his, to the intense musky odour Ianto exuded, to the sounds of his heavy breathing, and, above all, to the feeling between his legs. Ianto's fingers inside him felt so good, how they moved deep inside of him, stretching him, and filling him completely, nudging his prostate in a steady rhythm so that a heavy shudder passed through Jack every time. The need to be filled completely by Ianto suddenly became overpowering, and it threatened to vanquish him. Trembling, he fumbled for Ianto's wrist. Ianto paused, and searched for Jack's gaze. He nodded urgently, and slowly, Ianto let his fingers slip from Jack's hole although he still did think him a little too tight for it to be enjoyable and completely painless. But if he was honest with himself, he couldn't wait any longer himself either. Hurriedly, he spread the lube over his erection carefully before he put Jack's legs over his shoulders, and pressed against him chest to chest, bending the other man nearly in half. He propped himself up on his elbows to be able to look properly at Jack, to miss none of his reactions as he pressed the tip of his cock against Jack's twitching hole. Jack nodded again while they looked deeply into each other's eyes, and Ianto, breathing deeply, slowly breached the tight ring of muscle. 

“God, Jack,” Ianto moaned breathlessly, and a shiver ran through his whole body as he pressed himself inside Jack. “You're so tight. How long's it been?”

Jack whimpered, and groaned with pleasure, closing his eyes tightly, his breathing laboured as Ianto pushed himself inside him, the muscles inside being stretched to the limit so that he could barely draw in the next breath, feeling as if he was being split in two. Even if it hurt, the feeling of being completely filled out by Ianto brought tears to his eyes. It felt so good, and it seemed to him, here and now, being one with Ianto, as if he were only now complete again like he hadn't been in a long, long time.

Ianto brought his knees under himself, the movement letting Jack's legs slip from his shoulders inside the crooks of his arms, but at the same time making him slide deeper inside Jack, and he brought his arms around Jack's back. In a powerful move, he pulled him up against his chest, his strong arms and his cock deeply nestled inside of Jack the only things holding the other man in this moment, Jack's body folded together almost grotesquely in Ianto's lap while Jack made no move to brace himself with his powerless arms hanging at his side, being completely at Ianto's mercy, and trusting the other man to hold him.

“Tell me!” Ianto demanded, a possessive cadence suddenly lacing his voice. “How long?!”

The squashed position he was in made breathing difficult, but without moving an inch, Jack breathed in and out shakily when the throbbing pain inside of him for which he'd yearned so badly ebbed away slowly, and he shook his head, forcing himself though to open his eyes a crack to look at Ianto firmly. “No one,” he choked out, and brought his arms into motion after all to encompass Ianto's face with his trembling hands. “Only you.”

Hearing this answer, Ianto was unable to hold back the animalistic, possessive growl coming out of his throat, and he withdrew his hips as far as his limited position allowed to thrust forcefully inside the man on his lap.

Jack sobbed as Ianto moved inside of him. In this position, his thrusts weren't intensive, more a slow rocking, but therefore, Jack felt him so much deeper. It felt so unbelievably intimate and connected. He'd never experienced this, his sexual encounters to this day – not only with Ianto – being totally satisfying, sure, but somehow they were never this intimate, not to this extent. He almost couldn't stand it, wherefore the only thing he could do was to hold on to Ianto, and let himself be swept away.

But soon he came to a point where he couldn't bear this unexpected, shocking closeness any more. It would break him if he allowed himself to climax this way. Therefore, he clawed his weak fingers into Ianto's upper arms, and he looked pleadingly at him. “Ianto,” he begged with his last strength. “Harder.”

Ianto looked into Jack's glassy eyes, the older man in his arms already half unconscious with lust. Breathing heavily, he nodded, and lowered Jack back onto the mattress with shaking arms, his grip around him unrelenting so that Jack's sweat-slicked body wouldn't slip from his hold. He almost completely pulled out of Jack, and then thrust forcefully into the trembling body underneath, his continuing thrusts hard and unrelenting until both men tumbled over the edge, moaning, and with a stifled cry.

Exhausted and breathing heavily, Ianto rolled from Jack, and pulled him into his arms, his slowly flagging erection still nestled deep inside Jack.

Jack's whole body shook, Ianto's arms around him and the feeling of still being connected with him, still feeling him deep inside of himself the only thing keeping him remotely sane in this moment. Dazedly, he stared at a mole on Ianto's shoulder while a storm raged inside of him. Somehow, he was in shock. The sudden realisation, while being so incredibly close to Ianto, that it was more than sex, even more than love, set his whole world on fire. He had suddenly realised that he needed Ianto like nothing else in his entire life. Although it had been him, as he had to admit in shame, who had thought of Ianto as weak in the past since he'd realised how dependent the young man had made himself from him. Now he wasn't any better. He'd always been so independent, even before becoming immortal, had never allowed for such closeness, but Ianto's loss had changed him. To feel this extreme closeness and dependency, to even yearn for it, had descended upon Jack so suddenly and so surprisingly that it scared him. In the same breath, he realised how much he loved Ianto, he wondered how he could be so egoistical to want to bind this young man to himself. His life was full of sorrow and dangers, but Ianto deserved something better. He deserved all the happiness in the universe, but it was something Jack simply couldn't give him.

He flinched violently as he suddenly felt Ianto's fingers on his cheek, caressing him gently.

“Hey, what's the matter?” Ianto asked softly. 

Jack realised how strong he still trembled, so it was no wonder that Ianto noticed something was wrong. He pulled himself together, and deeply breathed in, but he evaded Ianto's questioning gaze. He didn't want to talk about the things that went through his mind right now, but if he wanted to give Ianto a future, he had to whether he liked it or not.

“There's nothing I could offer you,” he therefore blurted out hurriedly. 

Ianto frowned confused, not sure what Jack was getting at.

“I never had a real home after leaving the Boeshane Peninsula, and I don't even have a real job any more,” he continued undeterred, still not meeting Ianto's gaze doggedly. When the younger man didn't answer him, Jack looked up, and threw Ianto a beseeching look. Couldn't he see? “I can't offer you security, no stability... only me. Just my body. It's the only thing that you will always have.” 

“Oh Jack,” Ianto sighed, and enfolded him tighter in his arms as he slowly realised what the older man meant although he didn't really know what unsettled Jack so much that he now saw the need to push Ianto away for his own safety. But not with Ianto Jones! “You're not breaking up with me now, Jack Harkness,” he stated vehemently. “Not today, and not in the next thousand years.” A little more gently, but no less adamant, he continued, “I don't need security. I gave that up the moment I decided to go with John. But I need _you_. And not only your body. You've so much more to give.”

“I only bring death to ev'ryone I love.”

Ianto smiled sadly at him, and lovingly wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes. “Not to me.” He leaned forward, and kissed Jack lovingly. “That's the one thing  _you_ will always have. Did this hit home in that pig-head of yours now?” 

“But...”

Obviously not, which was why Ianto hurried to cut off Jack's protest. “No but.” He lovingly stroked Jack's hair, across his cheek, and his shoulder until he eventually put his hand on Jack's chest, the fast, strong beats of his heart directly under Ianto's palm. “I love you, Jack,” he stated whole-heartedly. “For a long time, even when I was too much of a coward back on Earth to admit it to myself – here, it's different, all these oppressing social conventions don't exist out here. But back at home... When it was just us, inside of Torchwood, then it was okay, but in public... I never thought of myself as intolerant, but the environment I grew up in was, and to a certain degree that shaped me. I was so afraid of my sister's reactions, and sometimes I even worried what all the people on the street may think although at the same time, I was so incredibly happy when they thought of us as a couple...”

“We were,” Jack interrupted him determined, his own fears suddenly secondary. “I'm so sorry I denied you that. I was such an egoist.”

Ianto shrugged. “I didn't have the right to demand you change, not for me.”

“No, no, you had every right!” Jack disagreed, shaking with boiling emotions, and clasped Ianto's face beseechingly. “We should have been equals, but because of me, we weren't.”

“We could be now!” Ianto declared resolutely, but Jack shook his head dejectedly.

“You followed me every time, sacrificed so much for me, in the end even your life, but in my careless, reckless egoism I gave you nothing back, just pain. I can't ask you to stay at my side any more. I'll just hurt you.”

“You gave me more than pain,” Ianto objected. “And I will still follow you if you will have me.”

Shocked, Jack stared at Ianto who returned his gaze full of sudden doubt. “Of course I want that!”

Relieved, Ianto exhaled. “Then, the decision is not yours to make. I told you just now, I don't care about the risks. Not before, and now even less.”

“I,” Jack stammered, and paused indecisively. “But...” Frustrated, he frowned, a sardonic grin playing around the edges of his mouth. “Look at us. What were we actually getting at?” 

Ianto grunted mockingly. “I don't have the slightest.”

Abruptly, Jack shuffled closer to Ianto, their bodies despite everything still joined, and he felt Ianto's cock inside of him getting hard once more. He tightened his muscles around Ianto which made the young man moan, but it didn't stop him from steadily holding Jack's gaze. “I love you, Ianto Jones,” Jack suddenly declared wholeheartedly. If he wasn't sure of anything in his life, he was of this at least. “I should have said it a long time ago.”

Ianto blinked, and for a moment, he thought he'd heard wrong. But then, tears gathered in his eyes as he entirely grasped what Jack had just told him. Impulsively, he leant forward to kiss Jack overjoyed.

Relieved, Jack returned the kiss, and allowed himself to get lost in it. After long minutes, they ended the kiss breathlessly while Jack wound his arms tighter around Ianto, and buried his face in the crook of Ianto's neck before letting his tears flow. He breathed in Ianto's smell deeply, felt his warmth surrounding him, and thanked all the gods for giving him this second chance.

“This wore me out as much as the sex just now,” Jack grumbled eventually after the storm of their roiling feelings had abated bit by bit. “And it was nowhere near as enjoyable.”

“Right,” Ianto laughed, stifled, but somehow liberated, too. “We're not used to something like this, hm.”

“Hmpf. I don't want to get used to it.”

Ianto made an affirmative noise. “I think,” he murmured thoughtfully, “for now, ev'rything's resolved between us, don't ya think?”

Jack shifted a little away from Ianto to look at him contemplatively before he nodded slowly. Without breaking the intense eye contact, he wrapped his left leg which until this point had lain relaxed on Ianto's around Ianto's waist, and pulled him against him. He let out a choked little whimper when Ianto slipped deeper inside, his cock once more rock-hard through the ongoing stimulation of Jack's muscles gripping him. He felt a little sore, but that didn't matter. He needed this, now, the closeness and affinity, and he hoped that Ianto would understand just how much he needed him in this moment.

Ianto saw the naked trust in Jack's eyes which the older man gave him at this instant, and he had to swallow hard upon seeing it. It wasn't often that Jack let down his mask to show any vulnerability, but Ianto'd never witnessed him as vulnerable as in this moment. He felt honoured that Jack trusted him so completely, and he vowed to always protect the other man from now on, to catch him when he felt lost. Ianto leant forward, and kissed Jack, holding their gaze the whole time. And even when he began to move slowly inside of Jack, they still looked deeply into each other's eyes.

Their renewed lovemaking was slow and lazy, but no less intense, their steady eye contact to each other a whole new level of intimacy.

Jack made a broken noise when he came, and Ianto let himself be swept away only seconds after by the rhythmic muscle contractions around his cock.

Once again, he leant forwards, and kissed Jack's trembling lips while he let his hands glide in calming movements over Jack's sweat-slicked back and sides. He kissed him deeply in apology as his flaccid penis slipped from Jack's hole.

Ianto waited for Jack to fall into an exhausted sleep after only a few moments before he carefully disengaged from him. In the bathroom, he cleaned up before he returned to Jack with a warm, damp wash cloth to gently wipe him down. Carefully, he rolled Jack onto his stomach to examine him. He actually didn't think that he'd hurt Jack, but he wanted to make sure. The sight of the reddened, fluttering muscles still trying desperately to close around something which was long gone while Ianto's come sluggishly streamed from the opening sent a weak but possessive shiver of arousal through Ianto. For a second, he indulged, and gently touched the trembling ring of muscle before he yielded to the irresistible temptation of sinking his finger into Jack's warmth. Shakily, he closed his eyes as the only minutes old memory of moving inside the tight, slick passage caught up with him. A soft whimper Jack made in his sleep drew him back into the here and now. Carefully, he pulled his finger from him, and instead pressed the damp cloth against Jack's reddened anus, making the older man flinch in his sleep.

Carelessly, he dropped the wash cloth over the edge of the mattress when he was finished, and curled up around Jack protectively who immediately sought his closeness on instinct.

For the first time in a long while, the two men spent a restful, secure night without the merest indication of nightmares.

 

The next morning, they left their hotel, and had breakfast together in a small café overlooking the spectacular Green Bay, the main attraction on Paxos.

It almost felt like being on Earth, even when it had been rather rare for them to go out together for breakfast in the morning. Before Owen and Tosh's death, the whole team had eaten together most of the time, and after, Ianto had shared a flat with Jack anyway so that such romantic activities hadn't been part of their daily schedule. And Jack had indulged his Ianto after the team had only been made of three people any more, but not as often as Ianto would have liked or deserved as Jack had to realise full of shame in the aftermath. He couldn't make up for it any more, not for his Ianto, and he would have loved to go on to every date the younger man had dreamed of, but all that he could do now was to enjoy the precious time with this Ianto to the fullest, no matter if it lasted forever or not.

He watched the younger man discreetly how he clearly enjoyed his exotic breakfast, and for a moment, he just felt happy. If only the coffee were as good as Ianto's, then life would be perfect.

Ianto noticed Jack's intense gaze resting upon him, and he looked up at him. He gently smiled at him, and hesitantly reached for his hand which Jack immediately grabbed readily while taking a sip of coffee. Ianto sighed nostalgically when he put down his cup.

“Thought so myself,” Jack grinned. “You turned us all into coffee snobs.” 

Ianto shrugged, chuckling innocently. “Why be content with less.” He scrutinised Jack intently. “You really want to tell me that there's no better coffee in the whole universe than mine?”

Jack leant back contemplatively. “To be honest, yes,” he finally explained which elicited an amused grunt from Ianto. “I'd give much to enjoy your talents once more.”

Ianto ignored Jack's suggestive eyebrow waggling, and instead shook his head sarcastically. “I won't haul a coffee brewer across the whole universe only for you to be provided with coffee, you little snob.”

“Told ya,” Jack grumbled with a smirk. “All your fault.”

For a moment, they held eye contact, both with a wicked gleam in their eyes before Ianto turned to his breakfast once more. “Speaking of travelling. Where do you wanna go next?”

Jack shrugged, and looked out over the emerald glittering bay. He didn't want to blurt out that he wanted to leave this system and Rana Pretorios as far behind them as possible. “Oh, there are so many fantastic places I can show you, I don't know where to start.” he grinned charmingly, but if Ianto's gaze was anything to go by, the younger man had seen right through him though he seemed willing to leave this adventure behind them as well once and for all. “How about Gala III.,” Jack cried with reawakened enthusiasm. “They have the Well of Purity. Or Womb of the Lotus as it's called, too.”

Ianto frowned. “Sounds lewd.”

Jack grinned suggestively. “Sure it is. I once had a lover with whom...”

“Stop!”

Ianto's exclamation quietened him, puzzled.

“I won't allow this to turn into a sightseeing tour through the galaxies on your sexual escapades!” 

Jack already wanted to retort indignantly, but the dangerous gleam in Ianto's eyes made him reign himself in a little. He stepped on thin ice here. But then, Ianto seemed to calm down again, his expression became gentler, and once again, he took Jack's hand in his of which he'd let go in indignation.

“I know, I can't demand from you to live monogamous with me for the next thousand or so years.”

Jack wanted to protest, but the firm pressure of Ianto's fingers around his own brought him to a stop.

“Maybe in a few years we'll grating on each others nerves so much that we'll go our separate ways,” Ianto continued soberly which caused Jack to freeze in a panic. Only Ianto's amending “at least for a while” eased his tension again. Jack shuddered suddenly as Ianto's gaze bore into him relentlessly, probing deep into the core of his soul. 

“But for the moment,” the younger man continued full of determination, “Remember that you're mine, and there's no other.”

Jack had to swallow heavily, and nodded, stunned, incapable of severing the hypnotic eye contact.

Ianto's dominant streak which he'd already noticed time and time again in the past, turning him on immensely, didn't fail to have the desired effect now as well. He flashed Ianto a hungry gaze, his breathing unmistakably sped up.

“You finished eating?”

Confused, Ianto blinked, surprised about this change of subject, but then he took in Jack's dilated pupils and his sped up breathing. He nodded mutely, himself suddenly gripped by boiling lust as well, and he let Jack pay the bill hastily.

Determined, Jack led him along the street, away from the bay, and finally dragged him into a remote alley, kissing him hungrily, before he pulled back again to fall onto his knees before Ianto.

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 05 – The New World**

Over the course of the last one and a half years which Ianto had spend with Jack in space, he'd experienced more than during his whole life before that. He'd seen, and experienced things – not always good things, mind you – he'd never thought possible, and every wonderful minute he'd been allowed to spend with Jack was burned into his mind forever. Now he knew how Martha must have felt when the Doctor had shown her the wonders of the universe. Ianto only had the added bonus of having fantastic sex while at it because even in bed (Bed rather being meant in a figurative sense), Jack had shown him things he'd never have imagined in his wildest dreams (the most memorable experience ha ving been their visit on Omega IV. where they had created a doppelganger of Jack by accident – the doppelganger had vanished by morning, but before that, it had been the night of Ianto's life). He'd rather thought that Jack had taken away his prudish naiveté and innocence a long time ago already, but since Jack had blossomed during their journeys through the universe again, he'd held a few exciting surprises up his sleeve for Ianto which would have made Ianto blush a few years ago. 

But it wasn't only Jack's eagerness to experiment sexually wise. If Ianto was honest with himself, it were the moments in which Jack showed his seldom shown romantic side that took Ianto's breath away. Moments like this when Jack took him on a romantic adventure for his birthday just now though he had no idea yet what Jack had planned.

With a secretive wink, Jack had taken him to Saphira Padmos today around noon, an Earth-like planet whose sky was dominated by a radiant white as well as a huge saphire-coloured moon that had given the planet its name.

After Jack had taken him out to dinner into the most noble restaurant of the capital where Ianto had had the chance to wear a suit again for the first time in years (even if Ianto had continued to wear shirt and waistcoat, letting it become something like his trademark like coat and braces were for Jack, Jack must have missed the sight of the complete ensemble terribly judging by his hungry gaze, but Ianto didn't fare any better when confronted with the sight of Jack Harkness in a suit), Jack had put him in a rented glider, and drove with him out in the country.

Even out here, without the glittering lights of the city, it was relatively bright because of the two moons whose brightly shining sheen and colourful splendour were made even brighter without the artificial lights. Fascinated, Ianto stared up into the sky when Jack parked the glider on a hill. He started in surprise when Jack suddenly took his hand, squeezing gently. A little thrown, Ianto met Jack's gaze, and he couldn't help himself but return the heart-melting smile. “Just wait, it gets even better,” Jack promised, and exited the glider. Ianto followed him, and to his surprise, Jack fetched a blanket and a picnic basket form the trunk. Speechless, Ianto watched him arrange everything on the grass.

“Well, come on,” Jack laughed when he'd finished, and he grabbed for Ianto's hand to pull him down onto the blanket with him. Ianto became even more astonished when Jack took out a bottle of champagne – real one, from Earth – and two glasses.

Slightly dazed, Ianto received the filled flute, its light golden content shining like liquid silver and gold in the moonlight, the small bubbles glittering like diamonds.

“Happy Birthday, Ianto,” Jack smiled ceremoniously, and touched glasses with him although they'd done this earlier in the restaurant already. Ianto returned the smile, suddenly shy, and hastily took a sip of champagne. He suppressed a soft moan when the taste exploded on his tongue. The equivalent back in the restaurant had been good, but this was so much better since it was something familiar. Suddenly a little nostalgic, Ianto watched Jack from under lowered lashes, soaking up the enticing sight contentedly. 

“Here, take one of these.” Jack held out a chilled little bowl filled with strawberries and other fruits Ianto had learned over the years had an aphrodisiac effect. 

“Are you planning to seduce me?” he asked with a chuckle, bringing a strawberry to his lips. The unmistakable scent filled his nostrils, and taking a bite, always being mindful of the juice not staining his white dress shirt, Ianto couldn't contain the ecstatic moan this time.

“We're talking about me, not really hard to guess, hm,” Jack joked, but his cheeky tone of voice sounded a bit strained. Ianto opened his eyes which he'd closed in delight without noticing, and looked at Jack, meeting his burning, hungry stare.

Ianto threw him a coy smile before he pushed the rest of the strawberry into his mouth, and slowly licked his juice-covered fingers. “I know you'll give your best,” he teased Jack challengingly. The other man had to swallow heavily, his gaze fastened onto Ianto's fingers as if in a trance.

Full of aroused excitement, Ianto counted on Jack to jump him any minute now, but a sudden movement out of the corner of his eye diverted his attention away from Jack and in the direction of the sky.

Ianto froze for a moment, speechless, but then he jumped up excitedly so as if he could be that much nearer to the fantastic spectacle of nature this way, and he stared up at the sky, overwhelmed. “Jack,” he breathed, his voice sounding choked all of a sudden because of all the emotions coursing through him. “Look.”

Thousands and thousands of shooting stars suddenly filled the sky, becoming more with every second so that the velvet blue sky was eventually covered with a silvery-shining, thick rain of lights, the two moons completely concealed behind it. He got the feeling as if the air around him was filled with the soft chime of countless tiny bells, and he realised that it was the sound of the shooting stars.

Disbelieving, Ianto turned around in a circle full of boyish joy to not lose sight of even one of the glittering lights. All of a sudden, he heard Jack's soft, happy sounding laugh in his ear, and out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that beside him, Jack didn't watch the shooting stars but him. “I'd hoped that the weather forecasting would be accurate tonight,” he whispered. “Singing shooting stars are normally rather rare this time of the year.”

For just a moment, he tore his gaze from the sky to look at Jack. “Oh Jack,” Ianto whispered awestruck, and the sight of the delighted smile on Jack's face while he watched Ianto reflected the same joy he felt himself watching the shooting stars. He felt Jack's warm hand slip into his, and the older man gently pushed him down onto the bonnet of the glider next to which Ianto had come to a stand still in his enthusiasm.

For long minutes, they lay next to each other on the bonnet, pressed tightly together against the cold, and watched the spectacle in the sky. Their hands were tightly interlaced the whole time while the air around them was filled with the song of the shooting stars.

In this moment, Ianto felt as if time had stopped. In his head, the here and now blended with another night under the stars when he had accompanied his Jack to Glasgow, to Archie at Torchwood Two shortly after Owen and Tosh's deaths. From there, they'd made a side trip to Loch Lomond, the true home of Nessie according to Jack (the huge prehistoric head bursting through the surface of the water, and blinking at them had convinced Ianto eventually). Jack, playful like a child, coaxed Ianto into sneaking into one of the moored rowing boats which actually served for watching the water bird population in the national park there. But nobody, least of all Ianto, could resist Jack turning on his boyish charm which was why Ianto'd followed him into one of the wobbly boats. Similar to this moment now, they had lain on their backs tightly nestled together inside the small boat, and watched the glittering stars above. And sometime... It probably suffices to say that even Jack Harkness hadn't tried ev'rything throughout his long life full of sexual adventures.

And in the face of this beloved memories, but also the here and now, Ianto was suffused with so much joy that he had a hard time breathing, that he had the feeling that he had no reason to ever be sad again in his whole life, and that this night would never end.

“Thank you, Jack,” he whispered eventually, overwhelmed with joy, but also a little disappointed when the shooting stars became less and less, their singing increasingly becoming fainter until they'd completely faded away in the end, and the only light in the sky were the two moons. Only when the last shooting star had fallen, Ianto turned his head to look at Jack.

Jack's breath caught when he saw Ianto's face, illuminated by the light of the moons, but also from an inner glow. He couldn't help it, he bend forwards to kiss Ianto lovingly, almost reverently, and he shuddered at the feeling of Ianto's warm lips on his.

The kiss turned rather fast from innocent and loving into something wild and unbridled full of raw, primitive lust. Breathlessly, Ianto finally separated from Jack out of necessity to gulp in a few panting lungfuls of breath before he smashed his lips on Jack's once more (who had a hell of a lot of breath, causing Ianto often times to have to strain not getting out of breath).

Dazed from the kiss, he let himself be pulled from the bonnet by Jack, and stumbled behind him back to their blanket on shaking legs where Jack pushed him down determinedly. Willingly, he let Jack undress him, but the attempt to help him undress as well just earned him a strict glare. “Let me,” Jack murmured. “Today's just about you.”

Ianto nodded finally, and surrendered completely to Jack. He shivered when the frosty night air met his bared body, but the cold was forgotten already in the next moment as Jack blanketed him with his own hot body, his clever hands and hungry mouth laying into him.

Ianto moaned, and panted shamelessly, and his whole body trembled under Jack's loving ministrations. Willingly, he let Jack pull him into his lap when Jack sat up, and brought Ianto with him, the other man's scorching hardness rubbing between his buttocks sending an anticipating shudder through his whole body. Jack's suddenly slick fingers invaded him all at once, and fucked him tortuously slow so that he could feel every burning move in every fibre of his body. Jack's fingers brushed over his prostate, tearing a broken gasp from Ianto while he clung to Jack helplessly.

“Jack,” he whimpered breathlessly because he wanted to feel more inside himself than only Jack's fingers, but he also knew that Jack would take his time with him.

As if Jack had heard Ianto's thoughts, he slipped in a third finger, but it still wasn't enough. The sudden feeling of emptiness despite the three fingers moving inside his passage became more and more unbearable with every passing second. He'd only find satisfaction feeling Jack's cock nestled deeply inside.

Whimpering, he pressed his face into the crook of Jack's neck, his whole body trembling from unsatisfied need, and finally, finally, Jack seemed to have mercy on him because he carefully pulled out his fingers. The feeling of emptiness threatened to sweep him away this time, the only anchor being the firm knowledge of what would come in mere seconds.

Ianto sobbed in relief when Jack pressed himself inside, the soft moans of pleasure coming from the older man like music to Ianto's ears.

Jack let gravity do the rest when he lowered Ianto onto his rock-hard erection until he was buried completely inside of him, Ianto's lush, firm ass cheeks nestled tightly against his balls.

For a few moments, the two men remained totally motionless, the feeling of being as close to each other as two people could be, completing each other utterly, the highest possible fulfilment in this instant.

In a teasing move, Jack raised his hips a little, filling Ianto's tight passage out completely now so that Ianto let out a choked noise, clawing his fingers deeply into Jack's back. They didn't have that much range of motion in this position for expansive, deep thrusts, but that didn't matter. This night wasn't about wild passion but intimacy.

Gently, Jack grabbed Ianto's hips, and helped his lover to move up and down in his lap, their movements languid and without the haste of chasing their climax. The whole time they looked deeply into each other's eyes, the only noise far and wide their heavy breathing echoing through the darkness, accompanied by the concert of the night's insects.

When they both came, it was only with a quiet gasp, their orgasm rather a gentle motion which swept them away than blustering waves.

For a moment, they stayed put motionless again without breaking their intense eye contact before Jack let himself sink back onto the blanket, Ianto securely in his arms.

Ianto started to shiver when the cold night air settled over their sweat-slicked, slowly cooling bodies so that Jack grabbed for a second blanket he'd brought, and spread it over them.

“I love you, Jack,” Ianto mumbled sleepily, and blinked at him through tired eyes for the last time. Jack smiled, and bridged the last few centimetres between them to kiss Ianto lovingly. “I love you, too,” he whispered. “Always.”

 

Full of new energy, the Doctor entered one of the bar levels of Appledome to look for Jack. He'd heard of his lover's death, and that he'd turned his back on Earth because of that. Therefore, there wasn't much the Doctor could do for Jack except trying to cheer him up a bit. And this cheering up sat right next to Jack at the bar in the form of midshipman Alonso Frame. The Doctor steered in the direction of the bar to put his plan into action while rummaging around for pen and paper in the pockets of his suit.

“Doctor. You here as well.”

The Doctor froze, and spun around to the owner of the slightly reserved, but somehow familiar voice. Next to him stood Ianto Jones... who should actually be dead...

He blinked at the very alive young man in shock, and scrutinised him intensely.

“Doctor!” 

He spun around once again, and was confronted with Jack's charming, slightly smug grin who came to a stop next to Mr. Jones, putting his arm around his waist.

“Captain,” he furiously pressed through clenched teeth. “What have you done?!” He was feeling poorly already, therefore he didn't have time to take care of a time paradox that had been Jack's idea!

“He hasn't done anything,” Ianto replied vehemently instead of the immortal, and stepped protectively before Jack. 

The Doctor scrutinised the young man suspiciously for a moment longer. On second glance, at least he didn't seem to be a time paradox, that much he could tell. Relieved, the Doctor relaxed a bit, but stayed sceptical nonetheless.

“I'm immortal, come from a parallel universe, and there's nothing you can do about that,” Ianto made clear, his arms crossed before his chest decidedly.

His suspicious gaze flitted from Ianto to Jack while he really had to pull himself together not to lose his composure. “Parallel universe?!” he cried in disbelief.

“Don't worry, Doc,” Jack tried to reassure him with a smile even as small lines of worry dug themselves into the skin around his eyes. “Everything's okay. In the other universe, too.”

The Doctor made a sceptical sounding noise which Ianto immediately prohibited, “In my universe, Jack transferred his immortality to me, by accident, and he died because of it. A mutual friend from this universe wanted to help Jack, tracked me down, and I went with him. That's all you need to know.”

For a moment, Ianto and the Doctor engaged in a staring contest which Ianto won eventually. Sighing tiredly, the Doctor lowered his gaze.

“Is he a fixed point?” Jack asked, suddenly very quiet.

The Doctor sighed once again, but shook his head. “No. He's just immortal. I don't know how this should be possible, but obviously the fixed point in the other universe that was Jack just disappeared.” Stubbornly, he crossed his arms before his chest. “Fixed points don't simply disappear.”

“Maybe the Vortex wanted to amend its fault by compensating at least this Jack for all the suffering,” Ianto speculated a little sharply.

The Doctor shook his head. “I don't think so. But as you're definitely not a fixed point, there has to be a natural cause for the fixed point to expire. I trust you in that now that there isn't complete chaos over there because you're here instead of your universe where you belong.

“You left the human Doctor and Rose in the other universe, too. And Jackie lives there, as did Mickey for a while.” Jack looked at the Doctor with a raised eyebrow.

“There wasn't a counterpart for Mickey and Jackie in the other universe any more.”

“There isn't one for me here, either,” Ianto hissed, but the Doctor ignored him.

“And the human Doctor was an aberration, as false as you are, Jack. I didn't want him loose in this universe, and leaving him there was the easiest solution. Besides, it made Rose happy.” 

A smack suddenly sounded. It was only a faint sound over the cheerful clamour at the bar which immediately swallowed it up, yet still it caused everyone present to freeze thunderstruck.

Shocked, Jack and the Doctor who held his cheek more out of reflex than real pain stared at Ianto who glared at the Time Lord, breathing heavily.

“Ianto!” Jack exclaimed gob-smacked, but Ianto only had eyes for the Doctor.

“And what about Jack's happiness?!” he snarled at him. “Do you have any idea what you put him through!”

“It's not my fault he became immortal,” the Doctor defended himself grumbling. 

“Maybe, but you simply left him behind on Satellite Five without even lifting a finger to try to help him or even explain what happened. You treat him like a naughty child, like a monster although he selflessly did everything for you in the last few years, even let himself be tortured on your behalf for a whole year without holding it against you!”

“You know about that?” The Doctor's surprised gaze flitted between a still perplexed Jack and a furious Ianto.

“I do. There are no secrets between us any more. Anyway...” Ianto glared at the Doctor. “Have you ever, during all that time, and after ev'rything he did for you, apologized!? Or even said thank you?!”

The Doctor indeed started to get a little uncomfortable under Ianto's fierce glare, and he stepped from one foot to the other uneasily. That wasn't how he had imagined this evening. He'd just wanted to do something nice for every one of his Companions before regenerating instead of being burdened with even more guilt which he hadn't even felt as far as Jack was concerned. But thanks to Ianto Jones, this particular guilt now piled on top of his huge mountain of guilt he had as well.

With a bad consciousness, he turned to Jack. “Jack, I... I didn't want to... I'm sorry, really.”

Jack smiled at him reassuringly. “It's all right.”

Ianto wanted to protest that a simple “I'm sorry” was a little lame, and no, only because it came from a Time Lord, it would not count double automatically, but Jack grabbed his shoulders in warning which silenced him. Still seething with rage, Ianto glared at the Doctor wordlessly.

In the blink of an eye, the Time Lord cheered up again, and grinned at the two immortals before him which Ianto, to be truthful, found a little schizophrenic. Unconsciously, the Doctor still rubbed his tingling cheek. “I like your spirit, Ianto,” he explained enthusiastically and more than a little impressed. “When family members of my Companions slap me, they don't know who I am yet most of the time, and after, they don't have the courage any more, but you...” His grin which he threw Ianto became even broader. “Jack's in good hands with you. You're just as much of a mother hen – in a bulldog-like manner – as Jackie and Francine when they want to protect their daughters. That's brilliant.”

Ianto made a threatening step towards the Doctor who hastily retreated before Jack could hold Ianto back by pulling him against his chest. “Ah, ah, ah, Babe, that was meant as a compliment.”

Ianto pouted. “That's something he has to work on.”

Jack laughed clearly amused, and put his arms around Ianto. “I don't think that he'll learn after nine-hundred years of putting his foot in his mouth.”

Jack grinned at the Doctor who responded with a rather sheepish grin of his own. Then he became serious once more, and put his hands into his trouser pockets. “Back then in the silo... I was wrong.”

Frowning, Jack looked at the Doctor, and shook his head questioningly.

“I told you, you'd be the only man that you could ever be happy with.” He threw a look at Ianto, a satisfied, affectionate smile on his lips. “You've found your counterpart.” 

Smiling, the Doctor retreaded backwards towards the exit. “I'm sure that you will be happy with each other for the rest of your days. Good luck.”

“Thank you,” Jack replied happily.

The Doctor shook his head. “No, Jack. Thank  _you_ !” 

The Doctor and the Captain looked at each other for a moment in complete agreement before Jack nodded, and the Doctor threw them a cheeky smile that even managed to placate Ianto.

“Oh yeah.” The Doctor stopped one last time, and now threw the two immortals an empathic look. “Swing by on Earth, would you. There's something looming.” 

The Doctor fixated Jack and then Ianto with a final, grave look, nodded, and then he was gone.

Overcome with sudden melancholia, Jack stared at the spot the Doctor had stood until a few seconds ago. The Time Lord hadn't told him explicitly why he had been here, but Jack felt that he wouldn't see him again. At least not in this body, and maybe even not for a long time, if ever. You never knew with the Doctor.

He flinched involuntarily when Ianto took his hand suddenly. Bewildered, he looked at their entwined hands, then he met Ianto's gaze.

There were no words needed, they instinctively, albeit with a heavy heart, came to the agreement that their carefree adventures were over for now, and that they would return to Earth to whatever may await them there.

In a sombre mood, Ianto led Jack from the bar and up into the hotel to one of the top floors.

 

Since leaving the bar, Jack hadn't said a word, and Ianto didn't have the courage to intrude on the pensive silence his lover had retreated into.

Unsure, Ianto leant against the entrance door after it slid shut behind him.

“What's on your mind?” he asked softly, and stared at Jack in the gloom of the hotel room. The other man didn't seem to notice the uncertainty in Ianto's voice, instead he pensively gazed out of the window into the blackness of space, his back turned to Ianto. 

“I had to think about Gwen,” he confessed finally. He'd thought a lot about Gwen in the course of the last two years, and he wondered how she and her family fared.

He heard Ianto's soft, choked sigh, and he threw a surprised gaze over his shoulder.

“Jack...” Ianto stepped up to him, and only stopped close to Jack, but he didn't want to look the other man in the eye. Instead, he held his crestfallen gaze focussed on Jack's chest, the wonderful mood and intimacy between them as well as the echo of the happy hours they'd spent on Saphira Padmos just yesterday suddenly smothered. “I know, that you love her – and also the Doctor – in a way that you'll never love me, but...” In the end, Ianto looked up to Jack, his eyes glittering with unshed tears, but his gaze was determined. “But it's me who'll be by your side for all eternity, not her.”

“No, oh, Ianto, no,” Jack cried out in shock, full of worry that Ianto could think, after all this time that Jack wasn't eternally grateful with every fibre of his being that it was Ianto of all people who would be with him for all eternity. He put his hands at the sides of Ianto's neck, and drew him towards him for a fierce kiss. “I love you,” he breathed against Ianto's lips, and suddenly, he felt hot tears streaming over his hands, but he never separated from Ianto. Instead, he deepened the kiss all the more. He realised that he told him far too seldom, if at all. He'd assumed that he conveyed his feelings for Ianto through actions instead of words, but obviously, there still remained a small slice of uncertainty inside Ianto which was why he probably had to hear the words every now and then. That he said them only yesterday was immaterial; he had to voice them now, at the threshold of a crisis. By doing this, he would assure Ianto of his love and devotion on the bad days, too, not only on the good.

“I love you, too,” Ianto whimpered when after a few long moments, they pulled apart for only a few millimetres to take a breath. Overcome with sudden desperation, he started to tug at Jack's clothes. He needed him now more than the air to breathe, had to feel him so that he knew that this here between them was still the real thing, and he hoped ardently that their return to Earth wouldn't destroy all they had.

Jack sensed Ianto's desperation – to a certain degree, he felt the same –, and was prepared to do everything to soothe Ianto's pain.

He roughly pushed Ianto down onto the bed, and now it was his turn to divest Ianto of his clothes within a few seconds before he lay down on him, his naked, warm body like a soothing blanket for Ianto. Jack grabbed for the container with lube on the bedside table, and spread the cold gel over his erection. Without lingering for more preparations, he put Ianto's legs over his shoulders, and thrust into the young man hard. Both of them cried out brokenly, the pain inside Ianto shooting through him like a searing spear, but he needed it, he needed to feel something. Desperately, he pulled Jack down into another raw kiss as the other man pulled out a little before taking him with relentless, hard thrusts.

The sex was brutal, driven by frustration and chagrin and desperation, and when they both came, it was a redemptive, brutal absolution.

Powerless, Jack collapsed into Ianto's arms, and stayed there trembling and gasping for air, Ianto's heartbeat under his ear. He licked his bloody lip, whereby he didn't know if it was his blood or Ianto's, and felt Ianto's hands tenderly caressing his burning, scratched back. His back as well as their lips would heal within the next few minutes which was why he didn't spare them another thought. Instead, he carefully withdrew from Ianto who nonetheless whimpered in pain involuntarily, and sat up. “Turn around,” he instructed Ianto softly who shook his head.

“I'm fine.” But under Jack's unyielding gaze, he turned around onto his front with a meek sigh. Carefully, Jack pulled his ass cheeks apart, and had to whimper sympathetically at the sight of the severely reddened, swollen opening. 

“I'm fine,” Ianto insisted again. “Tomorrow at the latest ev'rything will be healed.”

“Still,” Jack objected, and although Ianto was right of course, he nonetheless breached him with one finger carefully to check for blood. Even with their fast healing abilities, this was something totally different than a scratched back. He didn't want to be the one responsible for Ianto's pain, no matter how desperately they'd needed this unrestrained sex in their agitated condition, and no matter how fast he would heal. It was the same as with dying: Only because they returned to life, it was still a horrible feeling to die, and hard to watch for the respective other. 

Relieved to find no blood, Jack bent down to press a gentle kiss on Ianto's sensitive opening. Ianto shuddered in light of the tender touch, but Jack had already disappeared inside the bathroom for a wash cloth before Ianto could react to his gesture.

After Jack had cleaned them up, he pulled Ianto into his arms.

For a long time, Jack simply stared at the ceiling while Ianto kept his eyes closed, just listening to Jack's heartbeat under his ear.

“I've wanted to talk to you about something for a while now,” Ianto eventually broke the oppressing silence without opening his eyes. He felt Jack moving his head, probably to look down on him questioningly. “Don't get me wrong, I love to explore the universe with you, but...” He hesitated because suddenly, he became unsure how Jack would take his wish, but he just had to talk about it. He had to have the assurance that there still would be an _us_ even after their visit to Earth however that may end, that they still could return to a life together here in space. Taking a deep breath, Ianto gathered all of his courage. “I want a steady home. We still can travel, but we had a place we could return to though. I'm not made for such an uprooted life.”

Jack didn't reply anything at first while listening carefully to Ianto, evoking the impression in the young man that he had to persuade Jack with further arguments. “I'll buy a coffee maker, and you'll get as much coffee as you want,” he continued hastily in a desperate attempt to elicit some kind of reaction from Jack.

Jack laughed in amusement, and pressed his lips into Ianto's hair for a kiss. “I would like that,” he declared finally, and Ianto exhaled in relief. And only then Jack noticed how nervous Ianto obviously had been to talk about his wishes. It made him a little sad that his lover was apprehensive to talk about certain things with Jack, but on the other hand, he couldn't blame him. Unlike Ianto who yearned for stability and an orderly life deep inside of him, Jack never created the impression that he could stand being in the same place for too long. Those who knew him most of the time thought of him as the same restless soul which inhered the Doctor, too – never at home anywhere, unattached, but therefore lonely. Oh, how wrong they all were. How wrong Ianto was.

“A real home is just the thing we need,” he assured Ianto emphatically.

The younger man made a surprised noise so that Jack gently raised his chin to force him to look at him. He smiled soothingly at seeing Ianto's hopeful expression, and kissed him.

Embarrassed, Ianto pressed his face in Jack's shoulder when they moved apart again. “I thought..”

“I know,” Jack interrupted him knowingly. “And as long as it was me again who would be the one left alone in the end, I avoided settling down. But you... Ianto, our relationship changes everything. You can't imagine how badly I wish for a real home with you. A home in which I won't be left behind some day.”

“That will never happen,” Ianto whispered ardently, and kissed Jack's chin. 

“And... do you want to continue our work, or...”

Ianto shrugged one shoulder. “I don't know. Now and again maybe... Do you think they have a vacancy at the Library?”

Jack had to laugh heartily when Ianto looked up at him with big, enthusiasm-filled eyes. “I'm sure of it.” Then he became serious once more, and frowned. “Do you have a planet in mind already?”

Ianto sighed. “Not really. I want to live somewhere nice, and where we can find a little quiet and peace, if we want.”

Jack laughed without humour. “Then Earth's out.”

Ianto nodded. “We would never be able to lead a stable life. Someday someone would notice that we don't age, and we would be forced to move. I don't know how you managed all these years.”

“Every Torchwood Three leader at the time knew, and my colleagues only when I'd died right before their eyes. Most of them didn't live long enough to notice me not ageing. And outside of Torchwood... It deadens you at some point, being immortal. I've changed, I wasn't the carefree party-goer any more. Apart from a few exceptions, all my acquaintances outside of the Hub were just One-Night-Stands.”

Jack became silent, and Ianto put his arms more tightly around Jack's waist. He knew that Jack's thoughts were with the “few exceptions”. People like Estelle who he'd had to leave most of the time regardless to avoid hurting them and especially himself. Ianto didn't want to imagine Jack's loneliness even remotely, and he never had been as happy about his own immortality as in this moment because it ensured that Jack never had to be alone again.

“There are so many creatures in this universe who are ancient,” Jack steered their conversation back to the original topic, his voice sounding choked. “Nobody will bat an eye when we live a long life.” 

Ianto nodded carefully. “Yes, I think so, too...” Shakily, he took a breath, and pressed his lips together.

At least he seemed to dissuade Jack from the “you deserve someone normal, someone your age with whom you have things in common”-track which sometimes popped up, particularly during especially difficult situations they found themselves in. In a rare touch of guilt and false self-sacrifice, his Jack had tried the same, after a fight that had resulted in them not speaking to each other for four days, and Jack sleeping in the Hub once more. To be truthful, he didn't even know the reason any more. But contrary to what Jack had thought, Ianto didn't want all this. A normal life, a normal partner, a house, growing old together. Back then, with Lisa, he had wanted this, but not since Jack.  _If_ he wanted a life that came even close to normal, he wanted it with Jack. And if, at the end, he should be the one dying with old age, leaving Jack behind so that the older man was only left with his memories, then it would have broken Ianto's heart, but at least, they would have spend a fulfilling time together. 

Now, these depressing thoughts were obsolete anyway. Even if after all they had gone through together, he still didn't have much in common with Jack now that they were equals, both of them immortal, and therefore somehow outcasts. With Jack Harkness at your side, a picture-perfect life with a house and white picket-fence and a dog was out of the question anyway. But now they could have the next best thing. And more important, now they could have it together. Till kingdom come. And if they someday were sick and tired of it all, then they could pack their bags, and move into another corner of the universe, experiencing new adventures, and building a completely new life together.

The only thing he really needed was the reassurance of having Jack at his side...

“I don't want to go back to Earth,” he confessed after a few minutes of silence, pressing himself to Jack more tightly – only because he now had the certainty that he would stay together with Jack no matter what didn't mean that he had to like the upcoming visit to Earth.

Jack strengthened his grip around Ianto, and kissed him on the forehead. They both knew that this wouldn't keep them from fulfilling their duty.

“I know,” he murmured sadly. “Whatever the Doctor meant with 'there's something brewing', it can't be good. Short of a global catastrophe, the Doctor wouldn't have bothered to mention it.” 

“Why doesn't he take care of it, then? Ianto asked a little sharply, voicing exactly what Jack was wondering about just now, too.

“No idea.” Tightly, he wrapped Ianto in his arms again. “Somehow, I've got the uneasy feeling that it's got to do something with me, and that's why he leaves it to me to fix this.” 

Ianto snorted sarcastically. “We don't even know what  _this_ is.”

“Then we've got no other option than to figure it out.”

Ianto didn't reply anything, but he didn't have to.

 

 


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 06 – Rendition**

“Sorry, Sir, all I could find was an aspirin.”

Unimpressed, Rex looked up to the overly correct lad who presented him with an aspirin. “It's Ifan, right?” he asked with a quick glance at the name tag pinned to the suit of the flight attendant. 

“Yes, Sir.” 

“Now listen, I'm not gay, but I'll let you feel me up if you go get me a vodka.”

“Oh,” the boy made in surprise, and Rex already regretted to have suggested this so carelessly. But to his immense surprise – and affronted shock if he had to be honest –, Ifan only replied with stiff politeness, “Begging your pardon,  _ Sir _ , you're not my type.”

The two men scrutinised each other for a moment, in Rex' case contemplatively, before Rex pointed at Jack. “All right then, I'll let you feel  _ him _ up if it'll get me a vodka.”

Ifan raised an eyebrow, and threw a sideways glance at Second World War. “Very well, Sir.” And with that, he disappeared again behind his curtain in the front of the plane.

“We're supposed to be on duty,” Lyn spoke up behind him unimpressed.

“It's medicinal,” he countered cattily. “Besides, what do you think'll happen? They're gonna kick out a window and jump 30.000 feet? Trust me. Just sit back, and relax. The next six hours are going to be filled with boredom, followed by monotony.” Getting his point across, he unbuckled, and hurried in the direction of the on-board toilette. He needed to be unobserved for a moment to wallow in his pain, and to take the aspirin before he could pretend to be untouchable in front of the others again. 

 

The aspirin worked surprisingly fast so that he could return to his seat. Between the toilet and his seat, he had a good visibility on the two prisoners which had put their heads together in animated conversation.

“Where did you go, Jack?” he heard Cooper ask her seat mate discreetly as Rex came nearer soft-footed. 

“A long way away,” Harkness answered after hesitating a little, clearly anxious to keep it together. 

“And did it help?”

He didn't reply, but to Rex, the look in his eyes was enough. There were a whole lot of tragic emotions behind all this even if he didn't really understand what was behind this all. But before those two had the chance to indulge in further touchy-feely talk, he rather broke them up.

“Hey, lovebirds.” He planted himself in front of them, and looked down at the two Torchwood- remnants expectantly before planting himself casually onto the desk-cube before the two seats, ignoring the sceptical, exasperated looks. “Let me ask you a question. What the hell is this thing, huh?” He waggled around with the wrist strap he had taken from Harkness. “All it does is go bleep.”

“So give it back to me.”

He ignored Harkness' expectantly outstretched, bound hands completely.

“Yeah, I'm sure you'd like that. What does it do, measure how mortal you are?”

Harkness didn't let himself be provoked by his sardonic tone, instead he grinned at him. “Still don't believe me?”

“Please.”

“The whole world can't die, but I'm the one who's being ridiculous,” Harkness told Cooper. 

“Tell me then, fly boy,” Cooper instead changed the topic. “What happens to us when we get to America?”

“Oh, you'll be interrogated.”

“You stupid, tiny, bloody little man,” was Cooper's condescending answer which did surprise him though. Harkness countered Rex' indignant laugh merely with an insolent know-it-all look on his part. “For starters, we don't know anything. And even if we did, why didn't you just ask?”

“Oh, hey, listen. I... I'm sorry, maybe I didn't explain it earlier,” he said smugly. “I don't think you actually know... anything. I mean, come on... Look at you two, you're not that bright.”

Harkness ' indignant expression was quite the satisfaction for Rex. 

“What you are is connected. And someone has made a link between that old institute of yours and the Miracle. And now they want to kill you for it.”

Harkness even nodded approvingly. Very good, maybe now Rex could count on a little more cooperation from now on. “So, we work out what the connection is, and then we start to solve it.” It's quite plain.

“So is anyone doing investigations on morphic fields?” Harkness counter-questioned, and his tone of voice sounded so know-it-all and patronising that Rex would have loved nothing more than to punch him. 

So much for cooperation.

„One the what fields?“ Rex asked exasperated. 

To be honest, he didn't understand a word that Harkness tried to explain to him, and it probably was a load of bullshit anyway. He only started to understand something again when the guy came up with his monkey example. But what that was supposed to have got to do with the Miracle, Rex still didn't know.

“It's a fact,” Harkness shrugged off Rex' sceptical objection that this all was just simple fiction. “And the amazing thing about the Miracle is not that no-one's dying, it's not that the human race has become immortal. It's that it happened to everyone at the same time. Don't you see?!”

He had a point there, Rex had to admit. Pensively, Rex stared on to the floor before him while listening to Harkness a little more attentively now.

“It was instantaneous. And that's a morphic event on a scale that I have never seen before, so whatever's happening to this planet, it is massive! By the way...” And there it was again, this smug know-it-all look and tone of voice that drove Rex up the wall inwardly. “Your sodium's low.”

“My what?!”

“That bleeping. It's found low sodium levels in your blood.”

“You need salt,” Cooper added in a dry voice helpfully.

He looked at these two clowns before him a moment longer, before he returned to his seat, laughing. Where they fucking kidding him?!

Instead, he rather made a beeline for the phone on board to call his favourite doctor to bait her with the chance to examine the last mortal human – at least Harkness seemed to believe so – in exchange for pain meds as soon as they landed.

That he really had a low sodium level like she confirmed after his enquiry actually rubbed him the wrong way, and once more he wondered, while loudly demanding his prezels from Ifan, what this old-fashioned leather wristband with its pesky beeping really was supposed to do. Those Torchwood guys probably really believed that this was connected to alien activity somehow. Sad when your job made you so paranoid and bat shit crazy that you really believed in aliens.

Before he could continue his highly stimulating conversation with Doctor Juarez, she hung up abruptly. She'd probably got in an emergency judging by the hectic noises in the background.

Oh well, then he'd wait here for his pretzels, and in six hours time for his doctor and pain medication. Loooads of pain medication.

 

Not five minutes later, Ifan returned into the cabin to bring him his pretzels, but was then delayed by Harkness who asked him for drinks. It was pretty hilarious to see the boy trying to stick to the rules meticulously. And boy, his determined “I am not allowed to talk to you” sounded so intimidated and memorised behind his brittle, pseudo-brave façade. Well, Rex couldn't blame him and the hot stewardess, Greta. They were paid for their politeness and their smiles as well as making conversation with the passengers, not to do duty during a CIA prisoner transfer with completely different rules.

To make matters worse, Harkness, of course, had to hit on the lad (Second World War didn't need to think Rex hadn't noticed his repeated interested, shameless glimpses to Ifan's ass) with a suggestive, intimate “give it to us silently”.

Somehow, ev'rything that came out of the mouth of this man was sexual innuendo. If he'd had time and leisure, even Rex could have learned something from him.

The answer the boy gave was the same, even if his changed, prim wording showed how helpless he felt, but Lyn came to his rescue, and ordered him to bring the prisoners some water. Harkness ’ protest, and something concerning Cola was dismissed by Rex in favour of his boring magazine because Lyn went into the galley with Ifan to take care of the matter, leaving him off the hook for the moment.

“By the way, I like the suit,” Harkness called after the boy with a smile.

Now, Rex looked up from his magazine with a frown; how Ifan stopped right before the curtain, throwing a blushing, insecure look over his shoulder at Harkness, but then replying with a surprisingly dry chuckle, “Careful, Sir. That's harassment.”

Second World War didn't have a better pick-up line up his sleeve?!

“Wouldn't dream of it,” he replied with a charming grin which probably could make someone like this soft Welsh youngster swoon if this was your thing. Obviously, for their flight attendant, it was because he hurried to promptly disappear again behind his curtain.

Rex made an uninterpretable noise. Their luck that Harkness was bound. Otherwise, he really may have seduced the lad in the loo, and the CIA would indeed have been presented with the complaint against sexual harassment.

When the guy returned once more to ask Rex if he wanted something to drink, he waved him away, utterly bored. If nobody wanted to give him vodka, then he didn't want anything.

 

Rex startled as Harkness stood up suddenly, and immediately collapsed again. Rex barely managed to catch him before he crashed to the floor. That's just what they needed.

Ifan advanced with a worried gaze, and with the intention to help, but Rex shooed him away as well as Lyn's protests. Couldn't this woman shut up for once, and stop being so stuffy. After all, nobody wanted the prisoner to puke into the aisle.

“It's all right. I'll take him,” he placated Lyn, and led Harkness down the aisle. “You know, it'd be really ironic if you were airsick, dressed up like a flying ace and all,” he joked smugly, and shoved Harkness into the narrow cabin next to the galley. 

“I look like hell,” was obviously Harkness' priority after he caught a first glimpse into the mirror (granted, the man really had looked better an hour ago, now deathly pale, sweat on his brow, and bloodshot eyes).

“Ha! Yeah, your looks are exactly what we're concerned about here,” Rex nonetheless commented drily while putting away the handcuffs. 

“I don't like the timing of this. Someone wants to take Torchwood out. I warned you.”

“Look, I know the food's not too hot, but I doubt you've been poisoned, OK?” Rex tried to take the wind out of the sails of Harkness paranoid whining. “People get sick. It happens.”

“Maybe you're right. Every bug in the world is probably out to get me. I haven't developed any resistance. I... I never needed it.”

“What are you saying?” Rex asked amused while stepping a little away when Harkness really had to throw up. “Immortality leads to hypochondria?”

 

Even after Harkness'd thrown up, and he'd bundled the man up in his seat once more, he still didn't look better. Rather worse.

Cooper seemed to be of the same opinion, and immediately started, after she'd demanded medication from Ifan which weren't on board (everything had to go pretty fast when the plane had been readied for the immediate rendition, yadda, yadda, yadda), to spin conspiracy theories that someone had poisoned her colleague, either the flight attendant who, whining fearfully, defended himself post haste, or Lyn.

Lyn's “don't talk to the prisoners” wasn't really helpful in this situation. To Rex' surprise, shy Ifan threw her a scathing look.

In Cooper's place, Rex would have suspected the steward as well since he'd brought the Cola, but she let him be surprisingly fast since the young man vehemently pointed out Lyn's attendance during the preparations of the drinks. Therefore, she turned to the CIA agent. Lyn's offhanded excuse that nobody here was poisoned made Rex suspicious as well now, no matter how cool she stayed, trying to label the slowly becoming hysterical Cooper as paranoid.

“Just search her, Rex, please.”

“Look, you know no-one can die,” he discounted her request because some last doubts remained. After all, Lyn was a colleague, and she didn't have any reason to poison one of the prisoners. He looked at Ifan, frowning, who in turn couldn't tear his concerned gaze away from Harkness. But that the boy should have done it was unlikely as well. To fool them all, this green laddie had to have done an acting tour de force. No, this one wasn't a killer.

“Oh yeah? What if you're wrong, Rex?” Gradually, Cooper managed to scatter his doubts. “What if your big success is one Welsh woman and a dead body?”

That would be really embarrassing actually and bad for his career.

“Just search her, that's all I'm saying, search her.”

He still hesitated, but when she asked him again, he gave in at last to keep the peace.

But whoa! Now, Lyn's vehement defence became highly suspicious. Becoming furious, he rummaged through her handbag, and discovered a little plastic bag with blue and white pills inside.

“What did I say? Poison.”

He couldn't even hold Cooper's triumphant, self-satisfied exclamation against her.

Lyn rolled her eyes exasperated. “Is that the first assumption you make when you find medicine in someone's handbag?”

“Well, if it's medicine, I'm sure one pill won't hurt you.”

“That's a damn good idea.” Grimly, Rex held out one of the blue pills for his colleague. “Take it.”

Lyn once again rolled her eyes, but otherwise stayed completely cool. “Why would I take that? It's poison.”

What the! “You just said...”

“I just said it was quite an assumption,” Lyn interrupted him. “Yes, I carry poison. I run a lot of agents, you never know when they might need it.”

Yeah, sure! Who did she think she was!?

But, stay cool, Rex. “Okay, well, if you didn't give him anything, then there's no harm in telling us what kind of poison is in this bag.”

When she hesitated, he dumped her forcefully into her seat with grim satisfaction, and chained her to the tray table of her seat. In the mean time, Cooper had untied herself, and handed Harkness the pills. If he thought he could identify them, go on.

The first one turned out to be cyanide according to Harkness, but since his lips were deathly pale instead of blue, it had to be the contents of the white pill. Arsenic.

“You had a boyfriend that took arsenic?” it burst out of Rex incredulously. Harkness was supposed to have identified the white powder because of _that_?! 

“Yeah, Slovenian. Took arsenic for better skin,” Harkness explained, breathing labouredly.

“Hold up, I've read about that. That was back in the 1800s, though.” Did this guy want to pull his leg again?!

He didn't get any further because if he wanted or not, Cooper seized control of the situation, but since none of those present had any idea how to cure arsenic poisoning, it fell to Rex and his sudden inspiration. Impatient, he waited for the connection while scrutinising the chained up Lyn who glared at him full of hate, looking at the helpless Greta, over to Cooper kneeling worriedly next to Harkness, and to Ifan who held Harkness' hand tightly in his who somehow had reached out to this young man instead of Cooper.

Strange, but at the moment, he didn't have time for such details because just in that moment, Doctor Juarez picked up.

“How do you cure arsenic poisoning?”

In the first moment, she seemed a little thrown, even thought he joked, and didn't understand what was at stake here.

“We are stuck on a plane over the Atlantic,” he tried to make things clearer. “What else can we do?”

“Tell him he's lucky. Great time to be poisoned. He can't die.”

“This is the mortal man, the one I was telling you about. Seriously, I think this man can die.”

“Now you believe me,” Harkness choked in the background.

“You shut up!” Rex barked at him immediately. “Vera, what the hell can we do?”

His beseeching tone of voice seemed to finally convince her of the urgency of the situation.

Cooper squeezed next to him on the phone while Vera tried to explain this Chelat therapy to them, and finally, finally set about mobilising those around her – other doctors if he interpreted this correctly – to look for a way to make this EDTA out of customary things found on a plane.

He left the phone in the hands of a hectic Cooper, and released her from her handcuffs to let her, Ifan, and Greta rustle up the needed ingredients.

“Ianto! Laptop. Fuel cells!” Cooper's snappy tone put the steward in motion immediately while Rex simply looked at her in confusion. 

“Why do you call him Ianto?”

“Ehm, endearment for Ifan,” she replied hastily. “He looks more like a Ianto to me than Ifan, that's all.”

Rex frowned. “You're strange, you Welsh.”

“Shut up.”

So, while Ifan started to search every laptop on board for fuel cells, Cooper shooed Greta away to look for cleaner that contained ammonia. And Rex himself started looking for silver which he found, ironically, in Lyn's necklace.

He somehow doubted that the potion Cooper brewed together in the galley would really work, but on the other hand, they didn't have another choice.

Cooper lost it completely when a scared Greta tried to get it across to her that there wasn't any degreaser on board which contained... whatever, at least the last needed substance. He feared that the crazed Welshwoman might go for the poor girl's throat any minute now, but then, luckily for her health, uttered the words 'piping system'. Immediately, Cooper started to tear apart the carpet and the floor panels underneath like a lunatic to get at these mysterious orange cables.

When the first try turned out to be fruitless, Rex decided to lend a hand as well together with the suddenly highly determined Ifan – and regretted it in the next second again to have aggravated the hysterical woman next to him even more by implying an affair with Second World War, but really, the way they squabbled and the amount of hysteria Cooper showed out of concern for him! –, and finally, after laying open most of the aisle, a single orange-coloured cable showed up between the tangle of all the other cables, and tubes, and pipes inside the floor.

They continued to be fortunate because the co-pilot was diabetic, and they had to inject Harkness with the witches' brew after all. This, after relieving him of his heavy coat (Cooper as well as Ifan emphasized firmly that nothing happened to this stupid coat, serious?!), and fitting Ifan's tie around Harkness' upper arm as a tourniquet, would have almost gone wrong when Lyn managed to free herself, kicking the syringe out of Cooper's hands which tumbled between all the cables in the opened floor. Before Rex could react, Cooper was facing Lyn, and punched her so hard that the other woman crumbled to the floor unconsciously.

In the meanwhile, Ifan had fished the syringe from between the cable clutter, and now knelt down before Harkness to inject him the antidote with surprisingly steady hands. To Rex' even greater astonishment, the normally highly paranoid Cooper allowed a complete stranger whom she'd accused of being a poisoner only a few minutes ago to inject her friend and colleague the salvaging dose instead of doing it herself. But maybe she trusted in Ifan's steady, competent seeming hands.

What a stress! While everyone waited with baited breath for Harkness to recover, they all got a moment to get their shit together again. When Second World War eventually came to again, wheezing, and screaming in pain, but definitely healed, Rex finally could take control of the situation again, and get back to business as usual. The snapping of the handcuffs around Cooper's as well as Harkness' wrists gave him an unimagined feeling of satisfaction and recovered control. After he'd safely tied up Lyn as well so that the crazy bitch couldn't get free again, he relaxed back in his seat, and hoped that the rest of the flight could pass without another drama like this.

 

Rex was so damned glad when they finally reached Washington about five in the afternoon. A few colleagues already awaited them on the runway so that now everything went according to plan again.

Until his damn mobile rung, and a distraught Esther upset all his neat plans. Set up?! Cleaned out office?! Mysterious amounts of money on Esther's bank account?!

What the Hell was going on here?!

An icy shudder ran down Rex' back while he boiled with rage at the same time when he got an SMS during the call which he tried to keep as casual as possible so that his colleagues didn't become suspicious. An SMS telling him that 100.000 Dollar had been transferred on his bank account. That's just what he needed to be made a traitor.

He ended the call with some monosyllabic answers, and he was glad that Esther would wait for them in front of the airport. Now, his first priority was getting these two Torchwood clowns out of here in one piece.

„Hey, you know,“ he stopped the group ostensibly relaxed while rummaging in his jacket pocket for the keys of the handcuffs. “I just remembered there's one final piece of legislation needed to make this a full proper rendition.”

Showtime, buddy. And now, take off those two's handcuffs nice and relaxed while pulling everybody's leg here, he thought.

“And according to recent amendments to US Code section 3184 and section 3185 in transferring prisoners from airside to landside, the law clearly states that, um, once they touch down on American soil, they have free and easy access to one very important thing.”

“And what's that?” Cooper took the bait exasperated.

He stared at her for a moment expressionless. “Bullshit,” he replied then before he spun around, and rammed his elbow into the next best colleague's stomach. Harkness and Cooper, freed from their handcuffs by now, followed his example so that for the next few minutes, a fierce skirmish broke out. For the two to bolt, and leave him alone with a crazy Lyn wasn't part of the plan though. He really couldn't say that he regretted having to break the bitch's neck. Otherwise, the woman didn't seem to have been stopped.

Now he had to hurry, and collect die two idiots again who ran around the airport like headless chicken until Rex finally caught up with them, manoeuvring them outside where Esther, hopefully, waited for them already.

 

“What sort of getaway car is this?” Cooper cried mockingly-disgusted at the top of her lungs, and waved her arms in the air while Harkness tried to steer her into the blue Mini. “I thought you Americans all had these big SUVs. This is rubbish.”

“You don't happen to have a spare seat?”

Rex spun around at being confronted with the familiar voice, and he blinked taken by surprise at the Welsh milk face which'd suddenly materialised next to the car with a backpack over his shoulde r. “W hat's that supposed to be?!” it burst from Rex in exasperation. “Do we look like a shuttle service? This guy really must have turned your head, but you can forget your date toda...” Rex broke off abruptly, and could only stand there gasping for breath like a fish out of water as he had to witness in utter shock how Harkness tugged the young man against himself, and kissed him enthusiastically – and the bloke returned the kiss as well! You didn't kiss someone like  _that_ who you'd only met seven hours ago! 

“What the Hell...” Bot none of the two men took any notice from him. Instead, they climbed into the back seat, while Cooper, a little woodenly, – she somehow seemed livid – climbed in at the front, and the next best airport security officer chased away Esther and the car. He just managed to climb onto the back seat on the driver's side before the car set into motion.

“Rex, you've got to work on these escape plans,” Harkness lectured him drily to whom Rex sat much too close on the back seat in his opinion, and he didn't miss the smug undertone in Harkness' voice. He just wanted to deliver a scathing comeback while at the same time trying to answer Esther's question where they should go from back here – namely, far away from here for now – when Esther stopped the car all of a sudden. Because Lyn had blocked their way. A Lyn with her head turned around a hundred and eighty degree. Judging by the shocked silence in the car, he wasn't the only one who was freaked out by the sight. 

“Jesus,” it escaped him eventually. “All right, just... just drive. Drive,” he snapped at Esther, stammering who immediately set the car into motion again to steer it past the walking corpse.

“Was that Lyn?!” Esther cried hysterically, and just stopped herself from turning around in disbelief. “What the hell is going on?!”

“Welcome to Torchwood,” Ifan of all people suddenly commented sardonically from the other side of the back seat, and Rex just wanted to take a deep breath to inquire at the top of his lungs who the fuck this guy was because even he had got that he never ever was a flight attendant who wasn't involved in all of this shit. But then, Cooper beat him to it, and turned around all of a sudden, fixating the young man behind her with a manic expression, and hysterically screamed, “Why the fuck are you still alive, Ianto Jones?!”

Ianto Jones? Somehow, the name seemed familiar to Rex. He seemed to recall that a Torchwood member who'd died in the course of the 456 thing 2009 had been called Ianto Jones, at least if he remembered the photographed file's pages correctly Esther had sent him when he'd been in hospital... Ah, now he got it. That's why this whole Ianto-Ifan thing back on the plain. Cooper had blabbed in her hysteria over Harkness. And judging by Cooper's current hysteria, the boy wasn't as dead as they'd all thought. Obviously, he had to reconsider his opinion about Jones, and concede to him a little more capability than he'd thought if the man had managed to fake his death for two years so that neither his team colleagues (although if he considered Harkness ’ self-satisfied chuckle, the man had to have known that his – lover? – was still alive)  nor the government had known about it. 

“Gwen,” Ianto tried to calm down the upset woman in the passenger seat which still tried to bore holes into him with her laser like gaze. He exchanged a meaningful look with Harkness who just shrugged, and then launched into an explanation. “Gwen, I'm not... not the Ianto you knew.”

“Give it to me straight!” Cooper snapped. “If I want cryptic crap, I'll turn to the smugly grinning arse there next to you!”

Jones sighed again. “I'm from a parallel universe.”

Once more, there was deathly silence inside the car which Rex was the first to pierce with a incredulous, disgusted “Bullshit”.

Jones ignored him, though, and still addressed Cooper. “It's true,” he tried to convince her.

“Look, I never told you how... how broken I was after Ianto's dead,” Harkness chipped in. “The six months before we met again? I was a wreck. If John hadn't pulled me out of this vicious cycle...”

“John!?” Cooper asked sharply. “John Hart?!”

“He wanted to help me,” Harkness confirmed.

“Tss, I'm afraid to ask what this help looked like,” came the cynical reply from the passenger seat.

Harkness smiled in amusement. “You know what he's like. His attempt at helping me really became a little... unorthodox.”

Cooper who'd turned around facing the front again to just process everything, and compose herself for moment abruptly turned around to them again. “You seriously wanna tell me that he hopped into a parallel universe to get you a new Ianto?” she asked incredulous, looking from one man to the other.

“Yes,” Jones confirmed. “Basically, that was his plan.”

Cooper made overwhelmed, spluttering noises before she composed herself once more. “Why the hell did you go with him!?”

Was that really her most pressing question?! Did she accept this inane claim just like that?! Parallel universe. Sure.

Jones just shrugged, and evaded her look suddenly. “There was nothing for me in my universe.”

Abruptly, Harkness reached for Jones' hand, and squeezed comfortingly. “Ianto's universe is remarkably similar to ours,” Harkness took over. “I couldn't save Ianto from the 456.” He closed his pain-filled eyes for a moment. “The other Me did.”

“And... and why aren't you with him?” Cooper asked the young man in a shaky voice.

“I've no idea what happened, but when my Jack tried to save me through his life energy... he transferred his immortality to me. I survived, and he died.” 

“Oh my god!” Cooper breathed overwhelmed, and grabbed her forehead incredulously. 

“You see, when John suddenly appeared, and offered to take me to this universe, I couldn't say no. In this moment, I would've done anything to see Jack again.”

“But he... you...”

“I know what this looks like for you,” Harkness interrupted her. “It's complicated, but you have to believe us that we see no surrogate in each other, we're not fooling ourselves. We resemble the dead, yes, but there are still differences. We didn't fall in love with each other because we wanted to bring back our dead partners through the respective other. It... just happened. We have feelings for each other for our sake. Our longing for the two was just a catalyst.”

Rex had to blink in surprise because suddenly, Copper covered her mouth with her hands, giggling like a little girl. “Oh my god,” she whispered, and abruptly reached back to grab Harkness' hand. “You said  _fallen in love_ , Captain Jack Harkness!”

He grinned at her cheekily.

She squeezed his hand, and smiled warmly at him, then she turned her gaze onto Jones. “I'm so happy for you two. Really. And it's good to see you, Ianto.”

Relieved, he returned her smile. “It's good to see you, too, Gwen.”

She nodded enthusiastically, and for a few seconds she let her gaze dart from one man to the other. But then she became serious, and thoughtfully nibbled on her lower lip. “But this means... our Ianto is... really dead. For good?” She looked at Harkness who nodded briskly.

She nodded, and pressed her lips together. “I understand...”

Suddenly, she looked up again, her melancholy noticeably driven back, instead with a curious gleam in her eyes. “You said, Jack transferred his immortality to you.”

Jones nodded.

“Does that mean you are mortal at the moment like Jack?”

Jones swapped pensive looks with Harkness. “I thinks so. Don't really wanna test it.”

“Puh, well, true.” Sighing, Cooper turned around again. 

Then she looked at the two men through the rear view mirror, chuckling. “This was really quite the show you put up. Do you have any idea how hard it was to pull myself together not to blow Ianto's cover during the flight – barring the little slip?! The first time I saw him, I almost had a stroke.”

The two men grinned at her a little remorseful.

“We thought it safer for Ianto to keep in the background for now until we know who is after Torchwood,” Harkness explained with a shrug.

“But then, he couldn't let you go in there _all_ alone, hm,” Cooper chuckled.

Jones shook his head. “Granted, we're both still a little paranoid concerning each other.” He looked at Harkness, and once more reached for his hand. “It may take a while until this feeling that the other suddenly may disappear, and that all of it was just a dream will vanish for good.”

“And now that we're both mortal...”

Cooper nodded. “I understand. But we'll make this right. After all, we're together again.”

The three companions looked at each other affectionately, and then finally shut up for a while, giving Rex the opportunity to think during the remainder of the drive.

He didn't want to think about what had happened on the plane. Lyn's betrayal nagged at him, and this incident was enough to show that someone really badly wanted to eliminate Torchwood, so, for the time being, he let the matter rest. What didn't want to leave him alone though was this whole parallel universe thing. In his opinion, these three Torchwood jerks were crazy. Sure, everybody on Earth had to accept by now that there were forces behind the Miracle that exceeded people's imagination wether they wanted to or not – be it that they saw it as something religious or alien (over the last few years, it had been hard enough to accept that there really were Aliens, but all the sightings in England over the past few Christmases and the whole displaced Earth as well as these robot metal buckets that had fired around all over the world had even convinced the last sceptics). But now parallel universes to top it of?! No way.

He threw a careful side glance at Jones. He was more prepared to belief that this man, provided the real Ianto Jones was actually dead, was an Alien than that he was from a parallel universe. That would be much too crazy!

“We're almost there.” Esther's voice brought Rex out of his musings, and he was glad to have something productive to do. Because now, they had to first settle down in the hideaway Harkness and Jones had hid in until now, and then, Rex had to pick a bone with his boss.

 


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 07 – Dead of Night**

When Ianto returned into their hideout loaded with provisions and spare clothes, the others had returned as well. He and Jack had agreed that it would be better when they weren't seen together all that often in public. They still had no idea who wanted to eliminate Torchwood, but by separating the only two mortals on the planet, they wanted to give their enemies as few chances for success as possible. Hopefully, they had squeezed some useful information out of Friedkin. 

“What've you got?” he asked curiously when he put his things down.

“A phone which will hopefully lead us to the perpetrator of the Miracle,” Esther replied, and pointed at a red mobile phone on the table before her. 

“Hm.” Ianto frowned. “Let's hope this works. These guys are pretty clever... In the meantime...” He turned back to his bags. “New mobiles for all, provisions – at least what they call provisions in this country – and new clothes.”

“Uhh, Ianto got us new clothes.” Gwen threw her colleague a suggestive, amused grin who distributed the clothes with an impassive face though. “Don't know if it was clever to send him out with your credit card, Jack. No idea if there's anything left on your bank account.”

Jack leant back with a relaxed smile. “There's interest on it since 1906, so, I'll get by for a while. Besides, it would be worth it to be broke if I can see Ianto like that again.” He let his suggestive gaze slide over Ianto's suit-clad body.

He only chuckled, and handed Jack some shirts before looking at Gwen. “You don't think I really would have entrusted you with the clothes shopping, do ya. I like my clothes fitting.”

“Even fitting like a glove,” Jack commented, reached out, and put his hands on Ianto's hips to pull him between his legs. 

Gwen shrugged, chuckling. “Well, I have to concede there. Your eye for measurements and style has always been unchallenged.”

“Tss, gay,” was Rex’ highly redundant contribution to the bantering from the background. 

“His father was a master tailor,” Jack lectured the CIA agent.

Gwen furrowed her brow. “I thought Rhia said that...”

“In my universe, he was,” Ianto interrupted her while he absent-mindedly stroked through Jack's hair. 

“Argh, could you please stop with this parallel universe blathering!” Rex abruptly blurted out. “It's causing me a headache.”

“We really should change the topic,” Ianto sighed in mock regret. “After all, we don't want to overstrain our friend's mind too much since he isn't familiar with the bigger picture of the universe.” 

Jack agreed with a theatrical sigh. “You're right. That wouldn't be fair.”

“What's going on out there?” Gwen directed the conversation into more important directions again. 

“It is absolutely mental out there,” Ianto explained, and told them about the often times post-apocalyptic conditions as well as about the march of these Soulless that he'd watched. The others got a bad feeling when they heard that. 

After a few minutes of gloomy silence, they all proceeded to get on with business, namely analysing this mysterious red mobile which didn't bring them much further though.

While Esther followed more traces with Ianto's help, Gwen and Rex started to squabble since she still held it against him that he'd parted her from her family forcefully. In the meantime, Jack took an interest in a TV interview with Oswald Danes. He was convinced that this man, as well as all the others who could profit from the Miracle, may have something to do with it.

Interested, Ianto came over to Jack after he'd shown Esther how to use the Torchwood software which she, naturally, grabbed much faster and better than him – just like Tosh –, making him plain ly disp ensable in this part of the room. Sighing, he flopped down next to Jack. 

“What's the matter?” Jack asked curiously. “You're looking quite abashed.”

Ianto grimaced unhappyly. “I still can't get over the coke.”

“Hu?” Uncomprehending, Jack blinked at him.

Ianto made a dismissive hand gesture, and tightly pressed his lips together. “That this  _hwren_ managed to poison you.”

“I see.” Relieved, Jack moved closer to Ianto, and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “Wasn't your fault.”

“It was,” Ianto insisted, his cheeks suddenly going red. “I sneaked onto this plane to watch over you, and then I let myself be tricked by this woman. I feel like a bloody newbie.”

Jack shrugged, still keeping Ianto in his embrace. “If it soothes you, I didn't expect it either. I knew those CIA guys were arrogant, ignorant, and unreasonable assholes...” Both men ignored Rex ’ indignant huff as he overheard Jack's comment. “But that one of them could be a traitor, that's something I never even considered.”

“In our job, we have to be prepared for everything,” Ianto insisted. “All of us experienced that the hard way.”

“No hard feelings. I'm still alive.” In spite of his easygoing tone, Jack sounded a little strained. Obviously, the whole affair made him feel more low than he wanted to admit. He had been immortal for so long, so it was strange to be mortal again all of a sudden. There had been times where he hadn't wished for nothing more, but at the moment, it really wasn't a good time to be vulnerable again. Enjoying life as a mortal was nice and all, but it was difficult to enjoy it if somebody wanted to kill you – again. He really wanted to live a tick longer than that, thank you very much, even if he could do without the whole for all eternity thing. 

Amicably, he slapped Ianto's knee, and shoved over one of the laptops. “Come on. Let's check out this Oswald Danes.”

Ianto nodded, a little placated, and for a while, they worked silently side by side.

Rex' angry voice made Ianto look up again. He frowned since the other man was just busily trashing Esther because she'd promptly started putting her numbers into her new mobile.

“Well, think next time!” he snapped at her, and threw the mobile away in disgust that he'd grabbed from her. 

“Come on, Rex, she's not used to this,” Gwen tried to mediate, but Rex just didn't want to see reason, instead he talked himself into a rage more and more. 

“Calm the fuck down again!” Ianto snapped at him authoritatively. “She didn't do it on purpose. It's about her family after all.”

“Oh, what do you think you have to say here, faggot!?”

“That's enough!” Now Jack was the one snapping at Rex before Ianto had time to reply something. 

“And who the hell put you in charge?” Rex needled defiantly, but Jack stayed completely calm. He stood up, and planted himself in front of Rex. 

“I think the CIA did. You're a member of Torchwood now, whether you like it or not.” He glared at Rex commandingly. “And both Gwen and Ianto have way more experience than you, keep that in mind.”

“I'm sorry, okay? I really am,” Esther threw in hastily while the two men were engaged in a staring contest. “I just... I've never done all this before, and you guys have. I sit at my desk, and read blogs for a living.”

Rex moaned exasperated while putting on his vest again after having treated his wound.

„Rex, it's my sister,” Esther desperately tried to apologize to Rex. “She's just... She's not well.”

“Yeah,” the agent growled, and turned away from her. “It's irrelevant.”

Close to tears, Esther looked through the room, seeking help, and eventually met Ianto's calming gaze. “I'm sorry.”

“Don't worry too much.” Ianto smiled at her reassuringly, and came over to her. “Don't think I always do field work catching aliens only because I work for Torchwood,” he explained, and threw her an encouraging look which she returned full of questioning interest. “With Torchwood London, I was an archivist. With Torchwood Cardiff, too, besides managing the Tourist Information Centre we had as a cover, being general dogsbody, barista...”

“Hmhm,” Jack made absent-mindedly without looking up from his laptop. “The best coffee in all the world I should say...”

Ianto chuckled, and threw Jack an amused glance full of affection. “That's certainly right.”

“And you were General Support Officer, if you please,” Jack continued.

“That's another way of calling it.”

“Sounds fancier,” Jack explained precociously.

“But that doesn't change the nature of my tasks,” Ianto returned amused before he ignored Jack once more in favour of Esther.

Esther giggled, feeling at once more self-confident again because of Ianto's words, and indeed cheered up because of the men's banter. “Then show us what you've got,” she teased. “I could really use a good cup of coffee for breakfast.”

Ianto grunted drily. “Only because it's Miracle Day doesn't mean I can conjure a perfect cup of coffee out of nothing in this rat hole.”

“That's really tragic,” Jack declared, looking up from his laptop this time with a pondering, longing look on his face to which Esther chimed in with an agreeing noise. 

“After all, everything began for us with a cup of coffee.” Jack's good mood was back, and he winked at Ianto with a charming grin.

The other man frowned amused. “Actually with a Weevil.”

“Hair-splitting.” Jack waived his hand in an off-handed gesture. 

Esther looked from one man to the other. “What's a Weevil?”

 

After Esther's research had led them to the warehouse, the whole team went to take a closer look.

The tons and tons of pain meds stored there – much to Rex' delight – were something they hadn't anticipated. But that alone showed, whoever bribed Friedkin for years, and whoever was behind the Miracle, that this someone had planned this long beforehand. And PhiCorp was part of it.

The fact that a huge firm like PhiCorp seemed to be involved obviously discouraged Rex because after they'd left the warehouse, he started to question their actions. After all, they were on the run, and as had turned out, they couldn't trust anybody. That Jack wanted to handle all this without any kind of backup, wanted to tackle even PhiCorp, just them five, was too much for Rex.

“And is that standard Torchwood policy?” he bit out acidly.

“Suppose it is, yeah,” Jack replied with deadly calm, and if Rex had known him better, he would have known that now was high time to shut up. 

The only answer coming from the CIA agent though was a sarcastic noise. “You know, you... you dress like it's World War II, so I don't expect you to be up to current events, but there is no Torchwood! It's dead. Gone” Rex threw incredulous, uncomprehending gazes at Gwen and Ianto. “Buried.”

“It's us!” Jack stated vehemently, stubbornly trying not to take Rex' last words too much to heart. It was much too close to striking a sensitive nerve. He resisted the desperate urge to look at Ianto.

“As far as I can see,” Rex taunted, “you got all your staff killed.”

Now, Jack actually couldn't stop himself from flinching, but he didn't let Rex corner him that easily. “They were my friends,” he hissed.

“Your dead friends!”

Jack pressed his lips together firmly, and had to muster up all his strength not to go for Rex' throat. Ianto and Gwen didn't fare any better, but they held back as well. A dispute would serve nobody at the moment. They were shorthanded enough already.

But nonetheless, Ianto wasn't sad to see him go. Gwen might try to hold him back to hold the new team together, but to be truthful, they would never be a real team. Not like they were back in Cardiff. Even in spite of Owen's needling and insults against Ianto, they had been, if it had counted, a team that had stuck together until death, and they had always been able to rely on each other. Here, they were just three old friends that had to work together with two strangers as well as they could manage.

 

In a bad mood, Ianto trudged after the others. Gwen and Esther were discouraged, and the latter unsure. And concerning Jack, Ianto could only guess what went through the other man's mind at the moment. For a split-second, he wished that they'd never come here, that they had stayed in another galaxy. But he couldn't deceive himself. He as well as Jack were much too duteous as that they would have left Earth to its own means. After all, it was Ianto's home, no matter which dimension.

Only gradually, he noticed the state of emergency that surrounded them, all the fire engines and police cars. Where the march of the Soulless had been only a bizarre sight, this was more like an escalating panic.

“City's going wild,” Esther mumbled worriedly.

“Everyone's out drinking,” Gwen replied drily. “Nobody knows wether it's a party or a wake.”

“My arm is itching,” Jack threw in to which Gwen only had an impassive “poor baby” as a reply, thus taking the words right out of Ianto's mouth.

“I think it's infected.”

“You're worse than Rhys. It's itching because it's healing. Now, stop it, Jack.”

But Jack already didn't listen any more, but threw an interested glance at the club on the other side of the street, a cheeky, naughty gleam like old suddenly in his eyes. “If I were alone now, I'd make a little detour inside.”

“Next time,” Ianto replied dryly.

“And we have work that would like to be done, by the way!” Gwen threw in sarcastically.

Jack pouted, and spread out his arms theatrically. “Hey, mortal man, mortal needs nonetheless!”

“And they differ from your immortal needs how?”

Jack stepped close to Ianto with a suggestive grin. “You wanna find out?” he breathed in a husky voice.

Ianto returned his grin mischievously. “Can't wait.”

“Okay, then come.” Jack grabbed Ianto's hand, and dragged him down the street. “We'll go back to the flat. Good evening to you, ladies.”

“Jack!” Gwen shouted after him, but both men, walking hand in hand down the street, took no notice of her. Gwen swore until they were out of her sight.

“And... what are we going to do now?” Esther asked hesitantly after she'd waited a few seconds for Gwen to calm down again. 

Gwen uttered a last huff, then she linked her arm through Esther's, and leisurely pulled her in the opposite direction. “We're taking a walk. Stumbling over them, and catching them at it once is more than enough.”

“Oh... oh.” Esther turned slightly red as she probably pictured the scene in her head, and hastily lowered her head when Gwen laughed at her amicably. 

 

The door to the flat crashed shut after them, and in the next second, Jack pressed Ianto against it. He kissed him hungrily while his hands wandered equally as hungrily over Ianto's body, shoving a leg between Ianto's. A familiar hardness pressed against Jack's thigh, and he grinned into the kiss. 

For the blink of an eye, he let go of Ianto so that the younger man could shove Jack's braces from his shoulders before he just  _ had _ to impatiently put his hands into contact with Ianto's body again. With sure, skilful fingers, he opened Ianto's waistcoat and shirt, and shoved both from his sho ulders eventually. Ianto made a protesting noise into Jack's mouth when his clothes fell to the not really clean floor, but then Jack rubbed his thumbs over Ianto's nipples, and made  _that_ with his tongue... and that's when Ianto forgot his sense of order really fast. 

“Oh damn,” Ianto moaned suddenly when he realised something, and he shoved Jack away feebly.

“What?” Jack asked without really stopping. 

“What about condoms?”

“Don't have any,” Jack promptly replied before he closed his mouth over Ianto's right nipple.

Ianto moaned brokenly.

“I know that. But we're mortal now, and have a delicate immune system...”

Jack took his lips off Ianto's throbbing nipple, and looked up at him briefly. “If one of us were a stranger, I'd agree with you, but we're both clean, and we weren't with anybody else .” Enco uragingly, he let his hand wander down to massage Ianto's erection through his trousers. “We'll manage. Back then when you were mortal, we did it without a condom as well after becoming exclusive... right?” In situations like this, he had to recall that he and Ianto didn't share the same memories.

Gasping, Ianto nodded. “Yeah, true.”

“There we are. And now hush. Other than moaning, and 'Jack', and 'harder!', I don't want to hear anything else from you.”

“Aye, Sir.”

“Hm, cheeky.” Jack grinned, and sank down on his knees. He made short work of the fastenings of Ianto's trousers as well as the buttons of his shirt, and shoved his trousers together with his underwear over his hips. With both hands, Jack grabbed the firm ass cheeks now presented to him, and he leaned forward. With relish, he closed his eyes, and deeply inhaled Ianto's smell. Ianto shuddered when the tip of Jack's nose bumped against his shaft, and his partner's warm, moist breath met his heated skin. Breathlessly, Ianto took one hand from the smooth surface of the flat's door on which he'd tried to find purchase until now, and slid it demandingly into Jack's hair. Jack got the hint, and since he wasn't in the mood for extensive foreplay tonight either, he let Ianto's cock slip between his lips. 

Jack just loved the small, mewling moans Ianto made when he pleasured him this way, and he himself became even more aroused hearing these sounds.

He clawed his fingers more tightly into Ianto's ass, and pulled him tighter against him so that the hot shaft was shoved wholly into his mouth. He felt the tip bumping against his throat, and he relaxed the muscles so that Ianto's cock slipped deeper into his throat. Breathing calmly through his nose, he ignored his gag reflex, and swallowed around Ianto. Ianto cried out brokenly, and thrust involuntarily, making Jack hum in satisfaction. He squeezed his fingers hard into Ianto's backside, thus encouraging his partner to thrust harder.

Ianto's trembling fingers scrabbled for purchase at Jack's hair before he drew back from his mouth only to thrust back in hard in the next second. Jack moaned, and the vibrations of his throat around Ianto's cock sent electroshock-like impulses through his whole body.

Ianto took his other hand from the door as well, and put it against Jack's throat while thrusting deeply into his mouth once more. He moaned when he felt his own cock through the thin layer of skin and strong muscles in the other man's throat, felt his movements as well as the muscle contractions when Jack swallowed around him.

Sweat trickled from his brow, and he tried desperately to draw in the next breath. He sensed that he wouldn't hold out much longer.

With a final, erratic jerk of his hips, he buried himself deep in Jack's mouth, and came. He gasped brokenly when Jack swallowed around him for the last time to milk him off even the last drop of come.

Gasping, Ianto slumped against the front door, and leant his head against it exhausted, his eyes closed in relaxation while the only thing he could concentrate on at the moment was getting his breath back.

He shuddered when Jack let him slip from his mouth so that cool air met with his wet skin. Lazily, he caressed Jack's moist hair who still knelt before him, his arms wrapped around Ianto's waist, and his cheek nestled against Ianto's hip while he himself took deep gulps of breath as well.

For a few moments, they remained that way, but suddenly, Jack jumped up, full of new vigour, and dragged Ianto through the room to the sofa enthusiastically. The younger man stumbled over his trousers, but none of them cared. Before the couch, they tore their clothing from their bodies with lightning speed (Jack with more success than Ianto whose clumsy fingers still felt like rubber) before they fell into the sofa cushions, locked in a passionate embrace.

Jack knelt above him, and covered his face and neck with feverish kisses, slowly working down Ianto's body.

“Wanna fuck you,” Jack muttered against Ianto's stomach, and plunged his tongue into Ianto's navel. 

Ianto made a sound half giggle, half gasp. “You have to ask?”

He felt Jack's grin on his skin. “Wasn't a question. Just wanted to inform you.”

A small chuckle twitched around the corners of Ianto's mouth. “Oh well. But don't expect much acrobatic contribution from me. I'm completely knackered.”

Jack sat up, and searched for his gaze. He grinned at him manically. “Oh, don't worry. I'm very good at taking what I want.”

Ianto made an inviting hand gesture. “You're the boss, Sir.”

A shudder ran through Jack. “Now I know what I missed,” he breathed longingly. “You haven't called me that for ages.”

“We can remedy that easily, Sir.”

Jack shuddered anew as he met Ianto's sly smile, and for one moment, he was captivated by this gaze, unable to move.

But then, Ianto's graceful fingers closed around Jack's rock-hard erection, smearing the drops of precome leaking from the tip lazily with his thumb. Jack watched, trembling with lust as Ianto brought his damp thumb to his lips, licking off the liquid coating the digit. Jack moaned deeply. “One day, you'll be the death of me, Ianto Jones.”

They both flinched when they realised the implications of these words which was why Jack hurried to rummage around for the lube in his carelessly abandoned trousers on the floor while kissing Ianto hungrily.

“Turn around,” Jack instructed the younger man with a breathy voice to which Ianto only too gladly complied even when the couch was a little small for this.

Ignoring the tube in his hand for the moment, Jack bend down over Ianto's back, and coated it with biting kisses as well until he arrived at the small of his back. He spread Ianto's cheeks apart, and gently blew onto the opening. Ianto flinched when the cool air hit his heated skin, and Jack chuckled.

But bit by bit, he got to a point where he couldn't ignore his own arousal any longer which was why he bend down to lick over the tightly closed muscle.

Ianto made a stifled sound which he tried to muffle in the sofa cushions when Jack's tongue bathed his opening with saliva before shoving the slippery muscle into Ianto's hole.

“Oh Jack,” Ianto moaned. Jack's tongue fucking him felt so good, and he could hardly wait for Jack's cock to take possession of him.

After a few minutes which felt like blissful eternity to both men, Jack withdrew from Ianto, and fondly eyed the damply glistening, relaxed ring of muscle. Pleased, he opened the tube of lube, and coated his fingers liberally with the cold gel. Gently, he rubbed his index finger over Ianto's twitching opening, ripping a moan from the younger man as the cold gel came into contact with his hot, over-sensitive skin. Then, Jack shoved a finger inside of him.

He took his time preparing his partner although the urge to lose himself inside Ianto became even more unbearable with every passing second. But he pulled himself together. They didn't heal as fast as before, and under no circumstances did he want risking hurting Ianto only because he couldn't rein in his lust. 

“Jack, get on with it!”

Or because Ianto couldn't control his own.

Only when he could penetrate him with three fingers without meeting any resistance was he satisfied. Shakily, he smeared a vast amount of lube on his erection, and pressed his glans against Ianto's opening. The head slipped though the ring of muscle without resistance when Ianto raised his hips to force Jack's cock into himself. Carefully, Jack pushed himself deeper, and lay down over Ianto.

The young man under him gave a stifled moan. “Okay?” Jack asked worriedly, and Ianto nodded frantically.

Reassured, Jack propped himself up on his forearms left and right from Ianto's shoulders for more leverage, and pressed his forehead against Ianto's shoulder while carefully withdrawing from him as much as his restricted position allowed, only to sink back into him immediately.

Although a few moments ago, both men had been as if in a frenzy, now they suddenly weren't in a hurry any more to chase their orgasm. Maybe both felt that they should savour their intimate moments because who knew when they would find the chance to be together the next time. For Jack, it was enough to simply feel Ianto around himself, his warm, breathing body underneath him, and his scent in his nose. A spectacular climax wasn't suddenly so important any more.

A soft, stifled gasp from Ianto was all the forewarning Jack got, and for a last time, he buried himself deeply inside the young man before he let the muscle contractions around his cock catapult him into orgasm.

Exhausted, he lay down on Ianto fully while he tried to catch his breath, and he only rolled down from him when Ianto made whimpering, unhappy noises.

“I believe we had an audience,” Jack whispered into Ianto's ear while the two of them lay entwined on the narrow sofa, not caring about the damp patch in which they lay. 

Ianto strained to hear, but didn't catch anything. “Oh really? Gwen and Esther?”

“Didn't hear any voices outside, that leaves Rex.”

“Seems to have cooled down.”

Jack snickered. “I rather think he paid a visit to his doctor girlfriend.”

Drily, Ianto raised one eyebrow even if Jack couldn't see the movement. “In that case, he's back damn early. Is there anyone on this planet he hasn't pissed off yet.”

“Reminds me a little bit of Owen.”

Ianto snorted sarcastically. “But only a little. Owen never was this loud and pesky.”

Jack could only agree.

 

When Rex eventually decided to step foot into the flat instead of hanging around before the door (Neither Jack nor Ianto had felt obliged to put the other man out of his misery by inviting him in), he glared stroppily at the two men still lying tightly wrapped in each other's arms on the sofa, even if they had in an accommodating act of goodwill put on their trousers again. His mood didn't improve when Jack threw him a knowing smirk which promptly made the hardened CIA agent blush. He just wanted to retort vehemently when the two female members of their team burst into the apartment. Esther immediately turned her blushing face away from the two half-naked men on the couch while Gwen just rolled her eyes fondly. Nothing she hadn't seen before after all. Instead she turned her attention to Rex who stood rather lost in the middle of the room, looking as if he'd bitten into a lemon while she could spot a touch of a blush on his dark cheeks. She grunted sarcastically. „Don't tell me you let him watch.“

Jack threw her his patented, charming-cheeky grin. He just wanted to take breath for a suggestive comment when Ianto beat him to it, his voice full of faked regret, “I think Rex was shy.” He lowered his eyes chastely. “All he had to do was ask. Instead he was forced to stay in the hallway the whole time. I feel really bad about that.”

Jack tried to stifle his giggling in Ianto's neck while Gwen bit her tongue.

“Bite me!” Rex spat indignantly which finally made Jack lose it completely. 

“Maybe next time,” Ianto suggested with a raised voice to make himself heard over Jack's hysterical laughter, his face a mask of severe uprightness.

Swearing, Rex threw his arms into the air, and spun on his heel. “I don't have to listen to this. I'm out of here.”

And with that, he stormed from the flat, slamming the door behind him.

Now, Gwen too couldn't reign in herself, and burst out laughing.

“That was mean,” Esther chided, but even the corners of her mouth twitched in an unmistakable grin.

“A dressing-down won't hurt him,” Gwen chuckled. “Those who dish out the most are often the ones who then can't take it.” 

“Oh, Ianto Jones,” Jack wheezed guffawing, turning towards Ianto. „You're brilliant!“ And with that, he kissed Ianto enthusiastically which the Welshman only too willingly returned.

“Now it's quite enough, all right,” Gwen good-naturedly admonished the two men absorbed within each other when, after a while, they didn't show the slightest inclination to part from each other. She rolled her eyes, and, shaking her head, hid behind her laptop. 

 

Silence gradually descended over the flat. Jack and Ianto dosed on the couch after Gwen had tucked them in thoughtfully, and she herself enjoyed the last minutes of her surprise call with Rhys and Anwen.

She really had to remind herself to thank Esther somehow for making this possible.

Joyous exhilaration still suffused her whole being even after she'd ended the call. Chipper, but at the same time filled with a deep sense of peace now that she knew her family was all right, she looked around for something to do. But there wasn't anything left to do tonight. Hecticness and chaos would only catch up to them in the morning again. She spread a blanket over Esther who had fallen asleep in her chair, and she would have liked to bring the young agent into the bedroom, and settle her into the – admittedly uncomfortable – bed, but she couldn't without waking her. And Esther needed sleep. They all needed sleep desperately, but Gwen was still much too excited for sleep.

She met Jack's gaze when she looked around the flat, and he reached out his hand to her.

Stealthily, Gwen crossed the room, and crouched down on the floor next to the sofa, one arm braced onto the armrest. For a time, there was only silence.

“He's different somehow, isn't he.” Thoughtfully, she regarded the sleeping young man in Jack's arms when she finally breached the companionable silence.

Jack made a confirming noise, and lovingly stroked over Ianto's head. “But apparently, the other Jack was different, too.”

Amazed, Gwen looked up at him. “Yeah? How?”

“Ianto said, I am more... buoyant. Not as melancholic as the other Jack.”

Gwen snorted softly. “I really can't imagine you being any different than I know you. A Jack Harkness who doesn't flirt with ev'rything that breaths, and makes lewd jokes? That's not possible!”

The corners of his mouth twitched, but the smile didn't reach his eyes. “I can imagine.” Instinctively, he looked down at Ianto, so as if he needed the sight of him like a person dying of thirst in a desert who finally discovered water. “If he wouldn't have found me, you wouldn't recognize me now.”

She put her hand on his arm, softly squeezing. “I'm sorry.”

“He saved me, so, everything is... almost all right.”

“Yes. I can see how much you mean to each other. It was always obvious with Ianto that he loved you, but I've never been sure of your feelings.”

Painfully, Jack scrunched up his face. “I loved him, but I was too much of a coward to ever tell him. At least, I should have told him as he... as he died in my arms.”

Gwen kept silent for a moment, deep in thought. “I wish, I could tell you that he knew.”

“I've never shown him, so, no,” Jack confirmed sadly, giving her the same explanation he had given John back then.

The old friends lapsed into a gloomy silence in remembrance of all their dead friends.

“And other than that?” Gwen asked finally, wiping away a tear from her cheek. “What's different in this other universe? To imagine something like this is... well, unbelievable. Parallel universes. Aliens, yes, but this...”

Jack shrugged. “I don't have any experience with something like that either. The Doctor travelled into parallel universes by accident – technically, it's not possible any more for the TARDIS –, but I was not a part of that.”

“Somehow scary. Shows you that you're not really unique.”

“On the contrary. No universe is entirely like the other. Sure, Ianto's universe is very similar to ours, but there are differences. Small differences. For example, they lived together after Tosh and Owen's death, as a couple... and the other Jack trained him much better. Here, I neglected that.”

Gwen grunted in amusement to raise the mood a bit. “If you two would have done what one normally does on the shooting range...”

She felt that her joke backfired, and therefore hurried to comfort him. “Hey, even if you'd have trained him awfully well, and he would have been as tough as this one here, it wouldn't have saved him. It was the virus' fault, Jack, not some lacking abilities on his part for which you didn't drill him enough.”

“Yeah, the virus,” Jack murmured bitterly. “Not any dereliction on my part killed him, that's right, but my presumptuousness. If I hadn't been so arrogant, and challenged the 456, if I hadn't dragged him into Thames-House with me, he would still be alive.”

“But obviously, the other Jack was equally as... arrogant.” 

“At least he could save him.” Jack bend down to kiss Ianto on the forehead, at the same time pressing himself more closely against the younger man, seeking comfort. Ianto made soft, restless noises in his sleep, that was how tight Jack wrapped his arms around him, and he only relaxed again when Jack didn't squeeze him so tightly any more.

He flinched in surprise when Gwen's fingers suddenly started playing with the tips of his fringe. Questioningly, he looked down on her. “You've changed, too”, she murmured thoughtfully. “I've never seen you so... content and happy. As if you've found peace. Is it...” Her gaze flitted to Ianto's sleeping figure.

“It's not only because I have him with me,” Jack replied softly. “But because he's immortal, too. Do you know what it's like to be absolutely sure that you don't have to spend your eternal life alone, that there's this other person who will experience this with you, and that this person is the man you love?” Smiling, he shook his head. “It's so liberating to know that I don't have to be worried all the time for his life, and that he will leave me one day, be it him dying of old age, or...”

Gwen nodded, and took her hand from Jack's hair, instead touching Ianto's cheek tenderly. “Then we will watch out for him especially well until the Miracle is over and done with so that you two can ride into eternal sunset together.” Gwen's tone of voice was teasing, but Jack didn't miss the determined seriousness echoing in her voice. Gratefully, he grabbed her hand, and squeezed. “Thanks.”

“Any time. I seem to be a hopeless romantic after all.” She stood up again to get ready for bed, too. “You should sleep as well, Jack. Much to do.”

Jack sighed theatrically. “Recently, I need sleep, can you believe this?!” Pouting, he looked up to her. “Being mortal has its dark sides, too.”

“Does you good for a change,” Ianto murmured suddenly half asleep without opening his eyes, this way beating Gwen to her amused answer. “At least then you're not up the whole night, and can keep your hands with you for a change.”

Gwen grunted amused, while Jack kissed Ianto on the forehead with an equally amused smile. “I thought you were asleep,” he murmured against Ianto's skin.

“Nobody would be able to sleep with all these noises you make,” the younger man grumbled in reply, and buried deeper into Jack's embrace with the dead set intention to fall asleep again as fast as possible.

Jack swallowed heavily. He didn't like that Ianto seemed to have listened in on their conversation. He didn't want his partner to worry. Ianto knew how much guilt often enough gnawed away at Jack, especially when he lay in his bed at night, wide awake, but he didn't want to burden Ianto with it. There were more important things to do at the moment than deal with Jack's cracked psyche.

Gwen saw him grimacing painfully when he realised Ianto had heard everything. Baffled, she frowned while looking down onto the two men. Jack kept silent which showed her how much he had changed. In the past, he would have flirted or made some lewd comment to divert from the current topic as soon as it got uncomfortable for him, but now it seemed that he contemplated things intensely, and she was sure that he had talked about his feelings already with Ianto more than once instead of ignoring everything.

 

When Jack woke up a few hours later, the first weak rays of light fell trough the gaps of the dirty window shutters. He stretched out sleepily, and at that he realised that he lay alone on the sofa. Disgruntled, he looked for Ianto who he spotted a few feet away sitting before his laptop. Completely dressed as he noted disappointedly. Gwen and Esther sat before their laptops already as well, working furiously. 

“Why didn't you wake me?” he asked grumpily, and sat up.

“You needed the sleep,” Gwen replied. 

“For a change, it was pretty refreshing being the first one awake,” Ianto answered amused, but he let off his research, and instead came over to Jack to sit down next to him on the edge of the sofa. 

“Hmpf,” Jack made while wrapping his arms around Ianto's waist, and burying his face in his side. “You mortals. So much sleep. You miss half of your life if you sleep all the time.” 

“I'll try not to sleep so scandalously much in the future,” Gwen commented impassively without looking up from her work. 

Before Jack could reply something, the door opened, and Rex strolled in. He was loaded with a tablet of to-go coffee cups as well as a few paper bags that emitted a heavenly smell.

“Oh, thank God, breakfast!” Gwen cried enthusiastically, and together with Esther stormed over to the CIA agent to relieve him of his burden. 

And before Jack could hold Ianto back, his partner had jumped up as well to participate in the heavenly smelling goods.

With an ill-tempered noise, Jack crossed his arms before his chest, and let himself fall back into the uncomfortable sofa cushions.

“Seems I don't have it any more,” he griped indignantly. “In the past, nobody would have thought about breakfast when I lay naked in their bed.” 

“You're lying on the sofa half dressed, so that's not counting.” 

Jack resisted the childish temptation to stuck his tongue out at Gwen, and yet Ianto didn't seem inclined to let breakfast be breakfast to attend to Jack once more.

“You think you're irresistible, right.” Rex threw Jack a pointed look to which the other man simply stretched out with relish and provocatively on the couch.

“I could show you how irresistible,” Jack taunted which only elicited a pitiful-disgusted sound. 

“I have my standards,” he replied dignified.

“Obviously not.”

“Jones, would you shut up your boyfriend already?!”

Ianto complied with the exasperated demand with a chuckle, and joined Jack on the couch again at last, a cup of coffee and something to eat in his hands for his boyfriend so that Jack hadn't enough hands to accommodate food, coffee, and Ianto.

“I don't think you wanna see this,” Ianto replied with a chuckle. “The only way to really shut him up is not really X-rated.”

“Indeed,” Jack took up Ianto's words with a suggestive grin. “After all, you're not the only one here having been impaled. But I think I like our method better.” He looked up questioningly to Ianto with a mischievous look who just shook his head fondly. 

If looks could kill, Jack would have dropped dead right this second, the look Rex threw him was that sinister.

“Ooh, that face,” Jack taunted smugly, and led his hand glide over Ianto's chest provocatively. “Rex doesn't like his jokes too gay.”

“No, Rex doesn't like men in their forties acting like they're twenty.”

“And we're having a winner. Now, hush” Gwen's commanding voice brought them all back on course. Obediently, Rex turned to her to get a crash-course on how to use the I-5s while everybody ignored Jack's grumbled “mid-thirties, if you please, plus two thousand and some years” in favour of the progress of their mission. 

 

While Gwen headed out to her meeting with Doctor Juarez, the rest of the team followed the proceedings on the laptop's monitor over the I-5. But when suddenly Oswald Danes appeared on the screen, the plan became secondary to Jack when his sudden obsession with this man and the deeply rooted conviction that he had something to do with the Miracle gained the upper hand. And while they listened intently to this Congressman's demand for free access to meds only available by prescription until now, they only realised Jack was gone when it was too late already.

Ianto swore.

And then, the red phone rang.

 


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 08 – Escape to L.A.**

“If you wouldn't go off on your own all the time,” Ianto scolded while he tried to patch Jack up during their drive to Venice Beach – not that he could have done much in the first place. His fury was primarily fuelled by his relief to have Jack back mostly safe and sound. At first, Jack didn't let it show when they'd picked him up at the radio station, but only a few minutes after their hasty flight out of the city had begun, Ianto had noticed how utterly silent Jack held himself, his arms wrapped protectively around his middle. 

“Okay, what happened, and open your shirt,” the younger man ordered decidedly. 

“When you strike this tone, you can have everything from me, you know that, but I'd not assume that the others would be as happy about a free show,” Jack tried to sidetrack Ianto through his charm, but the young man wouldn't let himself be deterred.

“Now, Jack.” He glared at Jack.

Sighing, the Captain complied with the order, and unbuttoned his shirt. Shocked, Ianto gasped when he saw the dark bruises on Jack's abdomen. “Jack!” he cried in shock, and stretched out his hand, but in the last second, he stopped himself from touching Jack who'd flinched back instinctively.

“It's not so bad,” Jack tried to dismiss Ianto's worries. “It will heal.”

“How often did they hit you?”

“Can't remember.”

“You could have suffered internal injuries, and that won't heal as easily as you're used to. If at all.”

“I'm fine,” the Captain snapped.

“He's right, Jack,” Gwen butted in, and turned around in the co-driver's seat to have a closer look at Jack's injuries as well. She frowned when she saw the bruises.

“I'm fine!” Jack hissed again, gradually clearly irritated by his two colleagues' mothering. In reality, he was much angrier that he'd been taken by surprise, and second that he hadn't gotten any useful information out of Oswald Danes let alone gotten the opportunity to unmask this forgiveness act as the sham it was. 

“Well, tough, you were overruled,” Ianto stated decisively, and shifted around a little on his seat. He patted his thigh. “Come on. Take a little rest.”

“I'm not a toddler,” Jack hissed snarkily, and didn't show the slightest inclination to comply with Ianto's order. 

The icy silence as well as the equally as icy gaze he felt turned onto him send a shudder down his back. He could be stubborn for a long time. A very long time. But equally as long, Ianto could keep up this expression. The whole drive if need be.

Still grumbling, he gave in eventually, and curled up on the back seat, his head pillowed obediently onto Ianto's thigh, and his arms still wrapped protectively around his middle while Ianto's fingers grazed lovingly and hypnotically through his hair. Relieved despite everything – even if he would never admit it – he closed his eyes, and within minutes, he had fallen asleep.

 

After many hours cooped up together in their stolen car, they were all glad to reach their destination, and to breathe the fresh sea air. The view over the vast blue sea was simply fantastic, and if they hadn't had a mission, they would have been tempted to have a little fun at the beach.

At Gwen's pleading – and there, Ianto could only agree with her – to look for a hideout near the ocean, Jack headed out to obtain exactly that. Since Jack turned on his charm on the gay landlord Jack met, whereafter the man succumbed to said charm in a split second, Gwen got her house near the sea.

“What is it with you?” Rex asked after the landlord had gone, “You make everybody around you gay?” 

“That's the plan,” was Jack's suggestive answer, and Ianto prepared to intervene immediately.

Fortunately, Esther took care of that by reminding them all of their work, and so they had no problems getting settled, first of all setting up their numerous technical equipment all over the room.

 

They had to wait a few days before the surrogate server was delivered which they then wanted to swap against secure server 113 at PhiCorp to finally get at these information. So far, so good, everything went as planned. Even obtaining the biometrical data from Nicolas Frumkin went like clockwork, and so, a few on the team started to wonder when the rude awakening came. Everything went much too well. The only reason for fighting was who would be the one to sneak into the building to get out the server. In the end, Jack exploited his position as boss to nominate himself and Gwen, much to Rex' chagrin although even the ex CIA agent had to admit that Jack had a point when he argued that Rex still was on every wanted list imaginable, but Torchwood had been wiped completely off the face of the Earth thanks to Jack's little virus a few weeks prior. At least wiped from the face of the World Wide Web.

 

While making the last necessary arrangements for breaking into PhiCorp Headquarters, Jack and Gwen still complained grumpily how unbelievably embarrassing their little undercover mission had been to get a hold of Frumkin's datas.

“What do you think you are doing?” Jack asked flummoxed when Ianto was about to follow him into the delivery van with which Jack wanted to smuggle the server into the building, disguised as a delivery man.

Ianto blinked at him equally as perplexed. “Eh, accompany you?”

“Too dangerous. I want you to stay in the van with Esther and Rex.”

“But for you and Gwen it's safe, or what?!” Ianto cried upset, and flung Jack's hand away from his chest. He was painfully aware of the others' presence in the room, but that was something he couldn't consider at the moment. As much as possible, he distanced himself from Jack, and glared at him challengingly.

But his partner followed him, and lowered his voice. “You're mortal,” he tried to get through to Ianto urgently.

“You're mortal too, remember!” Ianto hissed back. 

Jack sighed desperately. “Yeah, but I'm sure time and space will find a way to keep me alive somehow. I'm a fixed point. I just can't die here only because of the Miracle. You're not a fixed point though.”

“In my universe you were a fixed point as well, Jack, and now look at us.”

Jack couldn't deny that Ianto was right on that account which was why they stared at one another heatedly for a few livid moments. “But we're not in your universe any more,” he finally tried again.

“Doesn't mean that the same can't happen here as well,” Ianto argued further undeterred. “Doesn't matter that, according to the Doctor, a fixed point can't simply vanish; if it could happen in my universe, it can happen here as well.” 

Jack reached for Ianto's hands, holding them tightly between his own when he felt the younger man wanted to withdraw them defiantly. “It's a possible risk, yeah, but you...” He couldn't help himself, he brought Ianto's hands to his lips to kiss his knuckles, even if he'd have much rather kissed him properly. “You would be dead for good. I couldn't bear to lose you again. Nothing in this universe could save me if that happened.”

He felt a lump constricting his throat, and tears of despair gathered in his eyes, but his only worry in that moment was for Jack, not himself. He disengaged his hand from Jack's vice-like grip to brush the tears from his cheeks. “And you think  _I_ could be saved if I lose you again?” he asked with a tearful, bitter smile. 

Fuck the others. Impulsively, Jack pulled Ianto into his arms, and buried his face in the crook of Ianto's neck to soak up his sent, and to feel his pulse against his cheek.

“Please,” he begged, “Please, do as I say.” He had no other arguments than simply asking Ianto, hoping that his lover would be reasonable. 

For a few painfully long minutes, Ianto held tight to Jack, breathing heavily, then Jack felt the young man nod. Relieved, he pressed a kiss against his neck before parting from him again. “Thanks,” he whispered, but Ianto evaded his gaze.

“I'll be monitoring you,” the younger man declared decidedly.

Jack nodded. “I didn't expect otherwise.”

“I won't let you out of my sight for even one second.”

Jack threw him a suggestive grin, trying to cheer him up. “Can't wait.”

It worked, Ianto answered with an involuntary twitch of the corners of his mouth. Once more, Jack bend over to him to kiss his cheek. “See you later.” And with that, Jack left the house.

For a few moments, Ianto's stood around the room undecided before he pulled himself together, and followed the others who with good reason didn't comment on what had transpired. Even Gwen refrained from commenting.

 

Determined, Ianto sat with Rex and Esther in their van near the PhiCorp HQ, and stared grimly on his laptop before him which he'd hooked up to his vortex manipulator which in turn was connected to Jack's, transferring his vital functions to the laptop. Ianto would have preferred to be with Jack, but since Jack overruled him, this was the next best solution.

Then it began, and once more, Ianto was deeply impressed by Esther's skills, how she intercepted the phone calls without any problem only to impersonate an employee of Human Resources. In that moment, he was painfully reminded of Tosh, and he missed her so fiercely, even Owen, too, that he had to turn away, and stare at his laptop and Jack's steady vital functions again determinedly while listening over his comms to Jack's conversation with the security guy at the delivery entrance, then to his and Gwen's bantering when they met on 21 st floor, making it into IT without problems. Because of that, he only listened with half an ear to Esther and Rex' conversation they had in the meantime, and so only caught a few bits of Esther's confession of having reported her own sister for the children's welfare to youth welfare services. He felt sorry for her, and Ianto had to suppress a shudder when he thought of what would happen if somebody tried to take Rhia's children...

With the other ear, he listened over the comms to Jack and Gwen working, and focused the rest of his attention on Esther's laptop where they could all see what Gwen saw through the I-5s.

Ianto just wanted to gasp in relief while Jack brought the server down into the underground car park, but then he overheard Rex yelling at Esther because she'd been at her sister's before leaving Washington. Ianto didn't want to agree with Rex, but he shared the CIA agent's fears that somebody could have followed Esther. His blood ran cold in his veins when these fears seemed to be confirmed because suddenly, they lost contact to the I-5.

“Jack!” he screamed into his headset, but Jack didn't answer. Instead, the laptop suddenly showed an increased heart rate. Jack was upset. Something must have happened.

“Where's Gwen?!” the Captain reported back at last, his voice sounding panicked.

“The I-5 went dead,” Ianto explained tensely. “You know what this means...”

“I just found the security guard down here, strangled.”

“Shit.”

“I'm on my way back up.”

“Okay, I'll come in.”

“No! You stay where you are. Let me check the situation.”

Ianto ground his teeth, but did as Jack ordered, and leaned back against the van's wall tensely, condemned to wait for the moment.

Relieved, Ianto heard how Jack seemed to have found Gwen, and when the I-5 went online again, it took a load off everyone's mind since it meant that Gwen was alive and conscious.

But then, Ianto's blood run cold again when they spotted a figure right behind Jack through the lenses. And Jack didn't notice the assailant. Helpless, they had to watch as Jack was knocked down.

Keeping his gaze focused on the monitor, Ianto barely managed to stop a swearing Rex who just wanted to storm upstairs.

“Are you crazy?!” the CIA agent screamed. “Let me go. Do you want your lover to bite the dust?!”

Bravely, Ianto clenched his teeth. “As long as Gwen is awake, we can see what's happening, and maybe this guy comes out with a few information.”

“And when he doesn't have anything to say any more, what then? We'll never get there on time.”

“We will.” Ianto held up his wrist the vortex manipulator was strapped to. “Teleportation function.” 

Rex stared at him as if he had a screw loose somewhere, but then he recovered again quickly. “Why didn't you teleport right inside from the beginning?! And doesn't Jack have something like that, too?”

“The teleportation function is broken on his, and a VM wouldn't have managed to transport such a huge object like the server in and out of there anyway.”

“Then teleport up there _now_!” Rex demanded, but Ianto shook his head. 

“Only if it gets dicey. Both of them know the risk.”

Swearing, Rex threw himself back in his seat before he vented his anger at Esther. “This is all your fault!” he snapped at her, almost causing the young woman to burst into tears.

“Shut up,” Ianto hissed, and would have loved nothing more than to punch Rex. “You rather listen.” 

Nervous, strained, and angry, they watched the happenings on the screen, and when Jack woke up again, they could listen in over his comms as well.

“Oh great,” Ianto grumbled, and blocked out the rest of the man's rambling about being so happy to have found Jack as the only mortal left. “An assassin.”

What was interesting, but not really surprising was the information that the killer had been hired to specifically kill Jack. Not Torchwood. Only Jack. It was likely Jack knew the client from his past, but he just couldn't remember them, or couldn't draw a connection between them and the Miracle.

This assumption proofed right when the killer answered Gwen's question about who had hired him that Jack had indeed known them a long time ago. Now, in Jack's case that wasn't really helpful. He'd had over one hundred years to piss off people all over the planet. And he had a talent for that.

Okay, yeah, long time to wait, eternal enemies, special geography, bla, bla, bla, but now this bastard pointed his weapon on Gwen. High time to intervene.

Within seconds, Ianto had activated his vortex manipulator, and disappeared in a blue flash of light. Left behind were two shocked CIA agents.

 

He materialised directly before the aisle Jack and Gwen sat in on the floor, the assassin above them, the weapon turned on Gwen. Without hesitating, Ianto drew his weapon, and fired.

The man staggered under the force of the laser shots before he crashed against the wall.

Disbelieving, Jack and Gwen stared from the assassin who'd sagged down to the floor up to Ianto who'd suddenly appeared before them.

“He was just about to tell us!” Gwen stammered in outrage.

Ianto frowned. “Thanks? Anybody? How about that?”

“And you shot him in the throat,” Gwen continued appalled without reacting to Ianto's words.

“He wouldn't have told us anything anyway, provided he knew something in the first place,” Ianto explained unmoved. “And we don't have time to torture it out of him.”

He knelt before Jack and Gwen to cut their bindings.

“I thought we talked about you carrying an illegal alien weapon after everything that happened last time,” was the first thing that Jack contributed to this discussion in a chastising tone, but he couldn't hide the breathless nuance of his voice, nor his dilated pupils when he let his gaze slide between Ianto and the elegant, sleek weapon in his hand.

“We did,” Ianto confirmed, and slipped the weapon back into his shoulder holster. “Just didn't agree with you.” He drily raised one eyebrow while returning Jack's gaze because beneath all the anger and frustration, something different gleamed in Jack's eyes, completely inappropriate at the moment, but when had that ever bothered Captain Jack Harkness. Therefore, he didn't flinch when Jack marched up to him, wrapped an arm around him, and pulled him tight against his body with a fiery gleam in his eyes. “I love seeing you like that.”

“I know,” Ianto replied dryly before kissing Jack fiercely, for the moment ignoring the exasperated “oh please!” coming from Gwen in the background and from Rex over the comms in their ears.

 


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 09 – The Categories of Life**

The next morning, Esther had rooted through the server's contents so far that she could present them with a few useful information already. Ignoring the squabbling between Rex and Jack since Rex still didn't want to believe that Jack was a few hundred years old, they all eagerly listened to Esther presenting her research findings. Apparently, PhiCorp planned Overflow Camps for all the ICU patients. And what would happen to those people in there... well, they'd rather not think too closely about that. But maybe, they would be faced with exactly that, would have to witness it with their own two eyes because after Gwen had talked to Rhys, they were all more than determined to get to the bottom of it to gauge if Gwen's father was in any danger in the camp in Wales, or if all of her worries were unfounded. Inwardly, they all feared that the latter would rather not apply.

 

In the evening, they tried to forget the catastrophe around them at least for a little while by at least once eating dinner together like civilised people (courtesy of Ianto who'd once again done one of the things he did best: providing for the team) without hanging in front of their laptops at the same time.  But before they had the chance to unpack their food cartons completely, Rex' mobile rang, and a scandalised and furious Dr. Juarez informed the shocked team about the Categories of Life which would become effective come midnight. For Gwen, the relaxed dinner was over with t hat because now she knew exactly what would happen to her father: Preventive detention in one of these camps you may just as well call concentration camps; for Gwen, there wasn't really a difference there. 

Immediately, she took the next flight back to Wales while the others, now with the support of Dr. Juarez, wanted to suss out these camps, uncovering this dubious building called the module they'd discovered. Because of his injury, Rex volunteered to go into the nearest camp in San Pedro while Vera (without Rex knowing and in defiance of Jack's protests) followed him to appear as an official observer. Esther had volunteered for doing office chores. That left Jack and Ianto who had to stay here at Esther's strict command since they both were much too vulnerable and too important in Jack's case for them to poke about these camps (originally, Ianto had offered to go into the camp as a secretary, but Jack had put his foot down vehemently – either both of them went in or none – until eventually Ianto was included in Esther's orders as well).

Disbelievingly, Jack stared after the two women, pouting offended.

“Finally, Mummy and Daddy are out of the house.”

Jack returned Ianto's sudden suggestive gaze confused. Since he still sulked, he needed a few seconds before he understood. His face lightened up once more, and he returned Ianto's gaze with a wanton grin which Ianto only knew too well, mostly if there had been a stopwatch involved back in the day. “Oh, yeah. What a coincidence.”

Giggling boisterously, Jack urged Ianto up against the rather sturdy table before falling to his knees before him. He winked at him suggestively while making short work of Ianto's belt. “Keep still, okay. We don't want to endanger the equipment. Then Rex will be cross with us.”

“And Gwen,” Ianto added breathlessly because in the meantime, Jack's clever fingers had freed his rapidly hardening erection from its tight confines. 

“Oh yeah. We shouldn't risk that, don't you agree? Too dangerous.” 

“Danger happens in our job occasionally,” Ianto whimpered when Jack suddenly licked along the whole length of his shaft. Jack made a non-committal noise, its vibrations transferring on to Ianto's cock since Jack had pulled him into his mouth completely at the same time. Ianto cried out brokenly. 

The only thing he was able to do in the next few minutes was clawing at the table as if his life depended on it while Jack almost drove him crazy. 

“God, every time I'm w ondering how you got to be so damn good at doing this,” Ianto gasped, his body strung tight like a bowstring while all of his sensations concentrated on this one point where he and Jack touched, his knees trembling and shaky so that he was glad to have the desk holding him up. 

Slowly, Jack let Ianto's cock slip from his mouth with an obscene noise. “I had a good teacher. He had gills, and therefore a whole lot of things he could do with his mouth without the pesky breathing.” Jack's eyes sparkled up at him while grinning suggestively, his hand massaging the slick erection tantalisingly slow.

“That was a rhetorical question!” Ianto hissed upset. “Keep going!”

“Hmm... no. I have other plans for you.”

Ianto's protest got stuck in his throat when Jack suddenly flipped them both around so that it was the Captain having the table at his back. He conjured a small tube of lube from his pocket, and pressed it into Ianto's hand with a triumphant grin.

“That's all right, too,” t he younger man mumbled, and a new shudder of lust ran through his body like an electric jolt. “Turn around.”

“Yes, Sir.”

As a punishment for this cheeky grin, Ianto smacked his lover's ass which only managed to fuel the older man's passion. Ianto's fingers shook as he opened the tube when he heard Jack's filthy moaning. And they shook even harder when he finally slipped his slick fingers between Jack's cheeks, penetrating him without further ado with two fingers at once. No matter how often he did this, every time, it was an elevating feeling to have Jack at his mercy. 

“Oh yes,” the Captain groaned, and pressed himself towards Ianto's fingers. 

Ianto didn't reply, instead he grimly concentrated on his task, his gaze firmly riveted on the hypnotic sight of his fingers sinking into Jack's body. Under normal circumstances, Ianto was a very patient person, but the sight presenting itself to him was quite the challenge for even his patience, and ultimately, he had to capitulate. With one hand, he reached for the tube of lube again while he let the fingers of his other hand slide from Jack's body. The Captain let out a protesting whimper, and pushed back against Ianto. 

“Yeah, yeah,” the younger man murmured, and hurried to coat his erection with lube as clinical as possible. “Not so impatient.”

“It's not my fault,” Jack moaned. “It's all your fault.”

“Hmhm, just keep talking, Prince Charming,” Ianto mocked, and put the little tube to the side. He grabbed Jack's hips tightly, and pressed inside of him. 

Both men moaned loudly when Ianto breached Jack at last. For their standards, it had been a while because they had been busy with such inconvenient things like saving the world and stuff like that occupying all of their free time.

By now, every sassy word had gotten stuck in Jack's throat since he was occupied with drawing in enough breath into his lungs while Ianto set up a punishing rhythm, every other thrust a direct hit on his prostate which let sweat break out on his whole body. Almost completely helpless, the only thing he could do under this onslaught of ecstasy was gripping the edge of the table tightly much like Ianto had done only a few minutes earlier while he pushed his ass towards Ianto to feel him that much deeper inside of him. At the same time, Ianto took his hand from Jack's hip that he'd dug deeply into the flesh, and slipped his arm to Jack's front to grip him tightly.

“Only a little more,” he gasped, and let out another choked noise when Ianto thrust into him with all his might, hitting his prostate dead on.  And Jack saw stars. Ecstasy gripped his whole body, and exploded in a white-hot supernova. 

“Jack!” Ianto moaned when Jack's contracting muscles gripped him like a vice. He froze, and his whole body trembled as his climax crashed over him. Breathing shakily, he pressed against Jack's back, and let himself be washed away, too. 

When finally the last waves of their ecstasy had ebbed away, the two men stayed motionless, Jack being squeezed in between Ianto and the hard table. The only noises that could be heard for a few minutes in the otherwise silent room were their panting breaths.

With shaking arms, Ianto stemmed himself away from the table eventually, and his spend cock slid out of Jack with a wet noise. 

Shaking, they sank onto the floor, their trousers still around their knees. Exhausted, Ianto sagged against Jack, his head pillowed on the Captain's shoulder, and relaxed, he closed his eyes.

“Okay.” Full of enthusiasm, Jack smacked his hand onto Ianto's naked thigh – this seemed to become a bad habit of him –, and Ianto startled up. “And now, we'll pay Oswald Danes a visit.”

Ianto groaned.

 

To say the truth, Ianto was glad about their little tête-à-tête before leaving for L.A. to t he Miracle demonstration because otherwise, Jack would have been much more furious and frustrated in the aftermath as Oswald Danes had decided, at the last moment, to forego Jack's plan of outing PhiCorp on stage.  Equally as disappointed, even if he still didn't really know what Jack had planned for Oswald, he followed him out of the building and back to Venice Beach.

 


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10 – The Middle Men**

“Jack?”

“Hm?” Jack looked up at Ianto innocently.

“Why're you inviting me into this restaurant?” Sceptical, Ianto raised one eyebrow. “What's your plan?”

“Am I not allowed to simply spend a nice evening with a gorgeous man?!”

The other eye brow went up as well.

“This is a little too serious to play games, and furthermore, I thought all this secret keeping was a thing of the past.” Iant o reached over the table for Jack's hand which the other man willingly put into Ianto's. “What are you up to, Jack? Why do you believe so firmly that Oswald Danes is the key to this whole mess? And why are we here?”

For a moment, the two men looked each other firmly in the eye before Jack nodded with a sigh, squeezing Ianto's hand. “I'm sorry. Force of habit. Has to be this planet.”

Ianto made an affirmative noise.

“I don't know what's going on with Oswald Danes, but one thing I'm certain of: The masses love and hate him, and if we like it or not, monster or not, this guy has charisma. He knows how to sell himself to save his neck, and you know perfectly well how easy people let themselves be ensnared by such a person. PhiCorp uses him to proclaim their message, even if I don't have the slightest idea which message that could be. That's why we have to dig deeper within PhiCorp.” 

“Okay, so far I'm with you. And so, who's the reason we're here today?”

“Do you see the couple over there?”

Ianto followed Jack's gaze in the direction of a middle-aged couple. He nodded.

“That's Stuart Owens, Chief Operating Officer for PhiCorp Industries. Before coming here, I had a very enlightening chat with his assistant. The bastard just stood her up this evening, and to top it off, he said some not so nice things about her that I managed to dig up.”

“Ouch. A spurned woman's scorn..”

Jack grinned at him impishly. “Exactly. And if you would excuse me now, I'll be back in a moment.”

“I take it that we'll take the dessert somewhere else?”

Jack turned around to Ianto once more. The grin was back on his face, and it had taken on a certain suggestive tone. “I think that would be best.”

And with a sassy wink, Jack headed over to Owens and his wife.

In the meanwhile, Ianto signalled the waiter, asking for the bill. 

 

“The Blessing?” Ianto frowned. “What's that supposed to be?”

“No idea.” Sighing, Jack sank back onto the sofa in their hideout where Ianto immediately set to massaging Jack's tense shoulders. The Captain moaned blissfully. “Owens didn't know much more,” Jack took up the thread of the conversation again while leaning back into Ianto's powerful touch.

Ianto sighed. “So, another dead end.”

“Well, not really. There's just more questions that popped up.”

“That we have no answers to. As if we hadn't enough unanswered questions yet.”

“Hmhm,” Jack made affirmatively, and calmly closed his eyes. “If we...” 

He paused  when suddenly, his laptop beeped. He looked over his shoulder up at Ianto who looked equally as surprised at the device though. 

“Gwen!” Jack cried happily after he'd sat down in front of the laptop, connecting it to the I-5. “You're a sight for sore eyes.”

“Jack, is that you?” Gwen asked.

Jack laughed. “In the flesh. You okay?”

She shook her head, and looked gravely into the lenses.

“We need you.”

“I know, Jack. I'll be there soon. I'm coming back to the fight,” she assured seriously. “But first, there's something I've got to show you.” She turned her head, and on the screen there appeared the building complex that was simply titled with 'module' in all the camps' plans. “Record it for me, Jack,” she requested, and he nodded.

After activating the recording function, he and Ianto watched as suddenly, the whole module went up into flames in a bright explosion.

“Ha!” Jack cried delighted. “That's our girl!”

He heard Ianto chuckle behind him.

 

Jack and Ianto had worked through most of the night to cut the I-5 video footage from the Welsh camp as well as that from San Pedro from where Esther and Rex had returned only late in the night. Together with the news of Vera's brutal murder.

Not tolerating any protest, Ianto had send the two completely exhausted ex-CIA-ians to bed while he and Jack sifted and edited.

At dusk, they send it away, setting off an avalanche of world wide outrage. Only a short while later, the team had gathered before the screens, and tracked the news.

“We did it,” Jack nodded grimly. “We're whistle-blowers. Every major news organisation. The world knows the truth now. Let the outrage begin.”

“You really think it's that easy, huh?” Rex retorted bitterly. Frustrated, he switched channels where the White House Press Secretary explained that the death of Dr. Vera Juarez would of course be solved, but nobody would excuse the Category One procedure. “You see that? They should be shutting down those camps right now. They're just talking about it.” 

“At least we've made it public,” Esther threw in.

“Torchwood wasn't designed to fight politicians.”

“We did it once,” Ianto spoke up.

“Yeah, and look what it both cost us.”

Keeping silent, Ianto pressed his lips tightly together when he had to think back to his Jack. Something that didn't happen often, at least not deliberately. But nonetheless, he would always have a place in his heart together with the man who resembled him so much. 

“No,” Jack continued with a sigh, “If we really want to stop this happening, we need to look at the bigger picture. Find out what the Blessing is.”

“Oh joy.” Frustrated, Rex leaned back in his chair. “Solving our current mysteries is oh so easy already. What's one more unsolved riddle.”

Jack glared at Rex. “We'll find out what this is all about. This does sound like a typical Torchwood issue. And if you think us capable or not, Rex, we're good in our job. Saving the world's nothing new for us. Just different circumstances. And therefore, we'll wait for Gwen. We need the whole team.”

“When will Gwen be back?” Esther asked, and looked up at Jack.

“Her plane should land any minute now. As soon as we're complete again, we'll solve this mystery. Just like old times.”

 


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11 – Immortal Sins**

Determined, Ianto tried not to listen to Esther's attempts at cheering up as well as Rex' scathing remarks to it, but it was hard. Even concentrating on his work didn't really help tuning out everything around him.

And then, Gwen suddenly stormed into the room as if she'd never been away. Without even one 'hello', she marched right through the room, calling Jack's name. That was strange. And even more strange was that she didn't seem to be happy one bit when Jack returned into the room. Normally, a barely noticeable smile played around her mouth when she saw him, even when she was furious with him. But now, she just brusquely demanded he come outside with her to the car.

“Bad day, Gwen?” Esther wondered, and Ianto could only agree. 

Suspicious, he left his spot behind the laptop, and took a look outside through the window, but he couldn't spot Gwen's car from where he stood.

He spun around when his laptop suddenly started beeping madly. Esther'd already reached the device. Over her shoulder, Ianto could see that the I-5 were activated, but somehow, they were blocked though. Swiftly, Esther accessed the I-5's cache, and what they spotted there took their breath away out of shock.

“Can we find them?” Rex asked gravely, and Esther confirmed this. 

“We can even do more than that,” Ianto explained through clenched teeth. He had known that something wasn't right here. Damn. And now they had to deal with this trouble as well. As if they hadn't enough problems to deal with already. “We can even listen in.” And with that, he activated his vortex manipulator which immediately set up a connection to Jack's. “We have to follow them,” Ianto urged. “Otherwise, we'll never be there on time.”

The other two nodded, and jumped up. Esther grabbed the laptop and Rex the car keys. They'd just scrambled into the car when the connection from Ianto's to Jack's vortex manipulator already transmitted first words. With bated breath, they listened to Gwen and Jack's conversation, well, more of a squabbling, while Esther was busily attempting to locate lenses and vortex manipulator more accurately. Only after a few minutes, they were on the right track, and followed Gwen's car at due distance. 

“Interesting,” Rex mumbled when it became clear that they weren't prepared to talk to Jack via the lense s. “They're not interested in negotiations obviously.”

“Do you think it's the same who set the killer on Jack?” Esther wondered. “I mean, they simply want to see Jack dead. So, they don't have to negotiate.”

Ianto growled angrily and frustrated. “It would make things simpler on the one hand because we didn't have a second unknown enemy. But when we don't step in at the right moment to save Jack...” 

“Then why don't you use that thing to teleport over there,” R ex suggested impatiently.

“I can't. At least not yet. Only when Gwen has stopped the car.”

“Damn. So, this leaves good old pursuit.”

“My mother's name is Mary,” Gwen suddenly hissed. 

“What?”

“Mary! You've known me all this time, and you can't remember her name?”

“Oh Jack,” Ianto groaned. “Serious? You were at Gwen's wedding.”

“All right, I'm sorry, okay?”

“Yeah. Well, you should be because this is all your fault.” For a few seconds, Gwen kept silent stubbornly. “They want to kill you, but why do they want to do that?”

“I don't know.”

“What have you done?”

“I don't know.”

“Well, you've done something, haven't you? Way back in that long bloody life of yours. God, you've lived so long, you can't remember half of it. Now you think. Think! What the Hell have you done?”

“I'd really like to know that as well,” Ianto mumbled frustrated.

“All this gibberish of an immortal life again. Do you seriously believe that the guy's been alive for a few hundred years?”

“A couple of thousand. And not now, Rex.”

“East is correct so far,” Esther chimed in, and watched the little red dot on the map symbolising Gwen's car since they couldn't see the car ahead of them any more. “But that's not helping us.” 

Ianto had to agree whether he wanted to or not. “We have to wait for them to stop.”

“Did they say get on the 10 going east? Or on the eastbound 10 Freeway, or what?” Jack suddenly asked which caused the others to listen closely again, and then Ianto realised that Jack desperately tried to place this unknown enemy at least geographically to get a lead. A good idea. He hoped that Jack would identify the kidnappers like this. “If they said highway, they could be from back east. If their grammar was wrong, it could mean that English is not their first language.”

“I didn't notice anything wrong with it,” Gwen countered. 

“You're Welsh,” Jack stated haughtily. “You wouldn't notice if the vowels were missing.”

“Button it!”

“Oi, I'll hold this against you, Harkness!” Ianto agreed with his fellow countrywoman at the other end of the connection. T hey would have a word or two about this before long!

For a few minutes, Ianto tuned out Jack's ideas of escape, and thought of a plan himself that would give them an advantage over the kidnappers, and allow them to get Jack back alive. But he just couldn't think of a solution. Wether they liked it or not, they were condemned to just follow them, and see where they would stop. There, they would have to lie in wait.

He perked up again when Jack suddenly assured Gwen that they could find Anwen. Gwen's silence sounded as sceptic-interested as Ianto felt.

“My wrist strap, it could find her,” he assured her. “It's coded to my DNA,” Jack explained after Gwen had risen to the bait. “And it resonates to anything close to my DNA.”

“If you are using my daughter as leverage, I swear to God, I will kill you myself.”

“Listen to me. If we recode it to your DNA, then Anwen is a close match. It would respond to her. Like a tracker. We could save her together.”

“You could do that?” Gwen asked in a brittle voice. “You could do that recode thing?”

“Yes. A drop of your blood. A single cell would do, but a drop would be easier.”

“Let's do it.”

“Pull over.”

“Okay, let's do it. I'll have to untie you...” Gwen started to sound suspicious and hesitant. 

“One hand for just a second, all right, Gwen? I'd be saving Anwen.”

The silence in the car lengthened, Gwen thought and thought, but finally, she only said, “You bastard. Nice try.”

Suddenly, the kidnappers stirred, and a confident “He always lies!” appeared on the screen.

“This really works,” Ianto mumbled, but now it was idle to still consider this possibility anyway. 

Gwen's confession that the worst about all this horrible things they'd gone through at Torchwood had been that she'd loved it, and that, for Anwen, she would allow them to slaughter Jack right before her eyes brought Ianto to a point where he tuned her out for good. Contemplatively, he leaned back in his seat, and started to think. Not about anything in particular, he just played with thoughts until they would have more concrete information on where Gwen would take Jack. For the remainder of the drive, Gwen and Jack kept silent, as did the rest of the Torchwood team in the other car. 

“They stopped!” Esther cried eventually, hauling Ianto out of his musings.

Eagerly, he bend over to her. “Wh ere are they?”

“Mesa, Pasadena.”

“How far behind them are we?”

“Approximately fifteen minutes.”

“Get going, Rex.”

The ex-CIA agent growled, but put his foot down.

 

Excited, Ianto, Esther, and Rex laid in waiting a few hundred metres from Gwen and Jack's position. In the meantime, Ianto switched his vortex manipulator's volume down. He couldn't and wouldn't listen to Gwen and Jack's heart-felt goodbye. It only drove home to them all how grave the danger actually was for Jack. Granted, Ianto was much more confident than the Captain who really seemed to view himself as lost, convinced that the rest of the team didn't know anything about the kidnapping. 

At about five o'clock in the morning, car's lights appeared on the horizon, and in the blink of an eye, everybody was on high alert again. 

“Keep ready,” Rex murmured, and brought his sniper rifle in position. “She knows?” he hissed when suddenly a woman emerged from one of the cars behind her bodyguards, greeting Jack as the last mortal man. 

“But he doesn't know her.” Ianto shook his head. “What's going on here?!”

“Doesn't matter. Let's go.” 

Rex fired off a warning shot besides one of the bodyguards, and then pointed the laser aimer on the unknown woman. 

“Okay, you stay up here, and give me cover. I'll go down there.” Ianto whipped out his weapon, and left their hideout up on one of the hills. With his weapon at the ready, he simply teleported down where Gwen was busy freeing Jack, and acquire the bodyguards' weapons. His appearance caused even more chaos with the kidnappers, and relief with his friends. 

“Hello, gorgeous,” Ianto greeted his Captain. “Long time no see.”

“You can't imagine how glad I am to see you.” Jack threw Ianto a dazzling smile full of relief, but then pointed his gaze and weapon on their unknown prisoner.

“I  _ can _ imagine.”

Within minutes, Esther and Rex joined them as well. Relieved, Gwen caught Esther in her arms when she heard that her family was all right. 

“Next time, just ask for help,” were the first words Rex let out after they'd exited the car. “I'm sick of Torchwood acting like amateur clowns.”

“You know, we are a suspicious bunch, and don't do mutual trust,” Ianto explained cynically, but his words were drowned out in Gwen's happy squealing when she hugged Rex out of pure gratitude before it was Ianto's turn who endured the Cooper'sche exuberance more unperturbed than the grumpy American. 

With a single embrace and a few brief words, everything was well again between Gwen and Jack so that they could turn to the kidnapper again. 

“And as for you, you'd better pray that death comes back to this planet by the time I'm finished with you,” Gwen threatened the woman heatedly. 

“So tell us who you are, before I let her loose.”

“I don't see that anything's changed,” the woman explained calmly. “You're still coming with me.”

“Why would I do that?” Jack asked mockingly.

“You'll want to come with me because I can take you to the one man who knows how the Miracle began.”

“Who's that?”

“Angelo,” she replied. “Angelo Colasanto.”

Ianto saw all colour suddenly leave Jack's face.

“He's waiting for you, Jack. He's been waiting for such a very long time.”

A shudder ran through Jack's whole body, and just to be sure, Ianto stepped up close to him to catch him should his knees buckle under him. At least, he put a calming hand in the small of Jack's back. “Even if I don't know who he is, obviously, Jack knows that man,” Ianto hissed. “Couldn't you just have called, then, you lunatic?! What's with all this fuss kidnapping Gwen's family?!”

“That's a very good question, Ianto,” Gwen said through clenched teeth, and stared at the woman with blazing eyes.

She shrugged. “I wanted to make sure we have your complete attention, Captain Harkness.”

“And you think you wouldn't have my complete attention if you'd contacted me to tell me that first, there is somebody who knows how the Miracle started, and second, that this person is a man whom I haven't seen in almost a hundred years?!” Jack glared at her, and seemed to regain his composure again gradually.

A fine blush spread over the woman's cheeks, but her dignified face didn't bat an eye.

“However. We should be on our way. Time's of the essence.”

“Why?”

“You'll see. Come.”

Reluctantly, but of course curious, the team got into their black van to follow the SUV. In unspoken agreement, they wanted to keep together for the time being, thus they thought it not a good idea to get into the foreign car. Jack was convinced that they really were on their way to Angelo, but that needn't mean that they were out of danger. Eighty years were more than enough to change a man fundamentally. Nobody knew that better than Jack.

Ianto slumped down next to Gwen on the back seat bench of the van, and scrutinised her.

“You did it for your daughter.”

Gwen held his sharp gaze unwaveringly. “Correct.”

Ianto nodded slowly. “That's the only reason why I won't kill you.”

She returned his nod. “Understood.”

“Okay, kids, ready?“ Jack asked, clearly in a better mood even if he still seemed a little out of it.

“Sure.” Ianto as well as Gwen threw him an insincere smile.

 

At first, they remained silent throughout the drive. Esther and Rex didn't have much to say to each other in the front part of the van, and in the back, there ruled a tense mood. Gwen was lost in her thoughts, and just glad that her family was all right. Jack was lost in thoughts as well, but he clearly sensed Ianto's questioning gaze directed towards him. But his partner didn't pressure him, and for that, he was grateful. Strained, he leaned his head back, and closed his eyes to collect himself.

He didn't open them again when he eventually started to talk, and in that moment, he didn't even care that besides Ianto, the rest of the team eagerly tried not to eavesdrop. “I met Angelo Colasanto in the 1920ies, New York. Spectacularly, I might add.” Jack grimaced as long buried memories caught up to him. “And it ended between us equally as spectacular.” 

“What happened?” Ianto asked softly.

Jack shrugged ungainly, and made an unhappy noise. “We were happy for a while... Then he learned of my immortality.”

Ianto gave a compassionate noise. “I assume he learned the hard way.” 

“Hmhm.” Jack remained ominously silent for a few minutes.

“What happened?” Ianto couldn't hold back eventually. 

Jack sighed, and opened his eyes. His gaze turned far away. “He was very religious. Devout Italians.” Jack gave an indignant, disgusted huff. “He thought I was the Devil. After he stabbed me, he fetched our landlords. And then it began... They held me captive in the storehouse of a butcher's shop. Strung me up there like a dead pig to bleed dry.” He shuddered involuntarily, and Ianto quickly took Jack's hand in his. Grateful, Jack squeezed. “It went on and on for days. The whole of Little Italy was there. They even took admission fees.” 

“To see the man who can't die?”

“No.” Jack's voice sounded cold as ice so that Ianto had to shudder involuntarily. “To make sure that I came back every time.” 

Ianto held his breath, and only now, Jack looked Ianto in the eye since he'd begun to speak. Ianto almost couldn't bear the sadness in Jack's eyes. “You mean...”

“I died so many times these days, Ianto. The whole floor was covered with my blood. I became weaker and weaker, it took a tremendous amount of energy for my body to revive this often in such a short amount of time... More than once I wished to never wake up again. But I did. Over and over.”

“What about Angelo?”

“He came back to free me. He was sorry, but that didn't change the fact that he'd betrayed me in the worst imaginable way possible...” 

Ianto flinched inwardly. This seemed to be the sad recurrent theme of Jack's life – to be betrayed by the ones he loved and whom he trusted... betrayed by the Time Agency, by the Doctor, Torchwood, Angelo, his team... Ianto himself. All of a sudden, Ianto started to really understand why Jack had such trust issues. All this secret keeping finally made sense, but Ianto vowed to himself that, as long as he  was with Jack, nobody would ever betray him again, and live to see the day.

He flinched when Jack continued, he'd been so immersed in his thoughts. “I left him, and never saw him again. And for over eighty years, he didn't cross my mind.”

“I'm sorry, Jack,” Ianto whispered into the car's sudden silence.

The Cap tain shrugged, anxiously indifferent. “It was a long time ago.”

“Doesn’t mean that you're over it,” Ianto corrected him gently.

Jack sighed. “Probably not, no.” Helpless, he grimaced. “Normally... normally, I turn tail like a coward as soon as my secrets threaten to come out. Most of the time, I never see them again. The ploy to impersonate my own son, seeking out the father's bygone lovers is too risky normally. I only did it with Estelle. A lot I simply monitored from afar to watch over them. But Angelo...” Sadly, he shook his head. “I was just so disappointed. And for a long time, this was the reason I didn't let anybody get close to me. I did my job, and went to bed with strangers...” Seeking comfort, Jack moved closer to Ianto, and put his head on his shoulder in a rare moment of openly shown vulnerability. “To see him again now... It all seems so unreal.”

Ianto squeezed Jack's hand tighter once more, and pressed a kiss against his temple. “I'm with you. No matter what happens, we'll get through this together.”

Jack made an affirmative noise, and kept silent for the rest of the drive.

 

 


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12 – End of the Road**

Their journey eventually led them to the luxurious but secluded Colasanto estate in Nevada.

“He talked about you all the time, Jack,” their hostess explained while she led them into the house. “His immortal man in old New York. He never forgot.”

“You telling me the whole world got screwed because two gays had a hissy fit?” Rex asked unhelpfully who had started to make sense of what Jack had told them in the car in the meantime. Even if it was hard to believe because now he definitely couldn't deny any more that Jack had told them the truth regarding his long life. 

“Rex, get back in your cave,” Gwen tried to get their hot-headed friend under control, beating Ianto to it who would have used much less diplomatic means though. 

“Come on, give me a break.”

“You inspired him,” their hostess continued unfazed. “You proved immortality was possible. And he devoted the rest of his life to finding out how to live forever.”

“And he did?” Jack asked a little shakily. “He's still alive? He's still young?”

“Oh yes, he's still alive. Angelo Colasanto is still very much alive... but he's not young.”

To see his former lover lying in that hospital bed, unconscious, an ancient man who was kept on life support, was quite the shock for Jack. And exactly that was the reason why he left them. Even if most of them thought him heartless, nobody could imagine the pain he felt when he had to see them grow old, and die while he had to endure. 

“My grandfather waited forever all this time to live forever,” their hostess sighed, Angelo's granddaughter, while stopping next to the bed. “And his wish came true... too late.”

Ianto felt the tremble running through Jack, and once more, he stepped up close to him to take his hand in silent support.

“What's wrong with him?” Jack asked, more composed than he really was.

“At his age? Just about everything.” Mrs. Colasanto shook her head, and send out the nurses.

Although there was no reason to doubt these woman's words, Jack nonetheless bend over the sleeping old man to gently pull his right eyelid up. And there it was. The black  spot just below the iris which Jack had thought so utterly charming back then. 

“It's him,” Jack gasped, and under all this shock he didn't manage to hide his excitement nor his happiness about that. 

“You must be horrified.”

Questioningly, he looked up again at Mrs. Colasanto. “Why would you say that?”

“Well, he's grown so old.” She shrugged incomprehensive.

“That's how I see the whole world,” Jack laughed although Ianto knew perfectly well that this was only one half of the truth. “He's still young compared to me.”

Rex waved his mobile around, thus barging into the conversation. “This is for Esther. Just keeping an open line to make sure we're all safe.” Esther was outside in the van to get out of here immediately in case of emergency so that at least one of them could finish the mission. 

“After everything I've heard about Torchwood technology, you're going to rely on an open headset?”

“Yeah, well, we had to leave L.A. in a hurry, thanks to someone I could mention.” Rex glared a Gwen who just put on her exasperated-little-girl face, so as if it wasn't her who'd been at fault. 

“Anyway, what the hell's going on with the stock market?” Rex continued, and nodded in the direction of the screen put up in the room showing the current collapsing stock market prices. 

“They're falling. It's been inevitable ever since Miracle Day, which I reckon is part of the plan.”

“So you put a gun to my daughter's head for what, for this?!” Gwen asked incredulous. “So you get your revenge on Jack?”

“We weren't trying to hurt you,” Mrs. Colasanto assured. “I was carrying out my grandfather's final wish to keep you safe.”

“So you  _ don't _ want him dead, then.”

“W-wait...” Jack held Gwen back who just wanted to attack the other woman. 

“Do you mean you were protecting me?”

“Hell of a way of going about it,” Gwen spat, and at the same time, Ianto grumbled, “Told ya so; you could have called.”

“There's a crucial distinction,” Mrs. Colasanto explained. “My grandfather cared for you. I don't. You might be important in some way we've yet to work out. So it's best to keep you intact. But that's as far as the sentiment goes.”

Jack and Mrs. Colasanto glared at each other for a few moments before Jack nodded briskly. That didn't mean that the Colasantos wouldn't help them. 

Since everything was said for now, she stepped back to sit down on the corner of Angelo's bed, and left the team a few minutes to come to terms with the whole situation. The three Torchwood agents looked around curiously while Rex carried out some measurements.

“These are all of you,” Gwen marvelled when she stood before the mantelpiece of Angelo's room together with Jack and Ianto. On the marble sill, a collection of framed photos of Jack was displayed. Some of them even still in black and white. A documentation of his life history until today, and Gwen and Ianto took some time out from all the chaos for a few precious minutes to excitedly identify the stages of Jack's life. They looked at each other with raised eyebrows when they spotted the picture of Jack with a moustache, both of them coming to the secret understanding that this so definitely wasn't Jack's look. 

“He watched you for decades,” Gwen breathed, impressed with Angelo's faith and love for Jack.

“But he never made contact.”

“You may not be ashamed of being old, but... he was,” Mrs. Colasanto threw in, and looked down on to her grandfather.

“Hold on now. He didn't cause this?” asked Gwen surprised. “Angelo didn't cause the Miracle?”

“No, he lived this long through natural means. He kept his body at a temperature two degrees below normal, he controlled his caloric intake, kept his blood pressure below 110.”

“Does that work?” Gwen continued asking, sceptical.

“Oh, yes. Prolonging life is simple. But no-one's worked out how to make a profit at it, so it's not advertised.”

“And the whole time he was looking for immortality?” Jack clarified.

“It's not as impossible as it sounds,” Mrs. Colasanto laughed. “You're not the only remarkable thing on this Earth, Jack.” She chuckled. “Consider the jellyfish.”

Ianto had to suppress a giggle when he spotted the indignant look on Jack's face when Mrs. Colasanto compared him to a jellyfish.

“I'm not as special as I thought,” Jack grumbled lowly. 

“You never were,” she dealt him the death blow. 

Now, Ianto definitely had to turn away to hide his body's silent laughing-wrecked trembling from Jack. But he became serious again in the blink of an eye when they learned that Angelo hadn't been the only one who was interested in such research.

“Who were the others?” Jack asked sharply.

“Well, the story says that it started with three men, each representing a different family.” She came over to Jack, and looked him firmly in the eye. “And when you were being murdered over and over again, these three men came to witness your resurrection.”

“I saw them,” Jack breathed when the memories came back gradually. “They made a deal.”

Mrs. Colasanto nodded. “They formed an alliance to purchase the power of resurrection. And when you escaped, the three families swore that they'd find the gift again.”

“What were their names?”

“The Ablemarch family, the Costerdane family and the Frines.” 

Immediately, Rex passed the names through to Esther for further research. 

“So... what happened then?” Gwen asked after Esther had started to look for the families outside in the van. “1928 – what did they do next?”

“Well, they lost Jack, but they still had his blood.”

“I thought they were draining it away... but they were collecting it,” Jack mumbled, a little shaken by new memories catching up to him from these horrible days and nights back then.

“All they had to do was figure out how to use it.”

“But that doesn't work,” Jack protested. “There's nothing special about my blood in itself. That's not what made me immortal.”

“Then why would the three families want to kill _you_?” Rex threw in. 

“I don't know!”

“Whatever they were planning, my grandfather wasn't included,” Mrs. Colasanto chimed in. “I think they considered him... inappropriate.”

“What's inappropriate?” Jack laughed, but it was a cold, dangerous and challenging laugh.

“He loved a man,” she explained straight-forward. “He did go on to have a family of his own, and I think he loved my grandmother very much, but he never lied about you, Jack.”

Ianto had to smile at the sight of the small, proud smile spreading over Jack's face, and he was glad and somehow proud, even though it sounded absurd, that Jack had found someone back then who was ahead of his time's thinking... at least regarding a few issues. And once more, it was apparent to Ianto that Jack, even if he would deny it vehemently, was a person to bring people to give their best. Simply because they loved him.

“As a result, Angelo was forced to watch them from afar,” Mrs. Colasanto went on.

“Made enough money, by the looks of it,” Gwen threw in sarcastically.

“Well, Jack told him enough to navigate his way through the 20th century and make a profit.”

“But what did these families do to the world? They... they started in Manhattan. Eighty years later, the whole of the planet becomes immortal.”

“And I become mortal.”

“In 1998 we intercepted a message. It was just one word – Blessing.”

A jolt went through the whole team when they heard this word. 

“We've heard about the Blessing,” Jack explained. “They found it. Whatever the Blessing is, the three families found it.”

“Now it's time that we found _them_ ,” Rex closed the circle. 

As it turned out, this wasn't as easy as they'd thought because according to Esther, these three families didn't even exist. And then contact broke off. 

Worried, Rex ran over to the window. Outside, a few black SUVs drove up, crammed with CIA agents led by Friedkin. Before Mrs. Colasanto could give them hints about the families' whereabouts, the CIA stormed the room. Oddly enough, Friedkin led Rex promptly away to talk to him in private while the rest of them was still detained in the patient's room where they had to learn that for once in his life, Rex had shown compassion, and that it had been his condolence call to Vera's brother that had led the CIA to them.

They'd thought that strange straight away, and when suddenly, the screen behind them showed the I-5 transmission, Torchwood realised at once that they hadn't stepped into the CIA's trap as unknowingly as they'd initially thought.

“Ha! He stole them,” Gwen chuckled after some futile seconds of searching for the I-5 in her jacket pocket, and all of them had watched Friedkin's confession with satisfaction right here live on the screen, including leading agent Shapiro who'd just arrived. Who'd gone ballistic because of all this sloppiness within his organisation, and therefore seemed equally as grimly satisfied when he could arrest Friedkin.

Then he wanted to know what the Hell was going on here. And he wanted some answers asap from this weird bunch that he'd found here. 

But before he could start with the interrogation, he was thwarted by this little brunette who started to grill Rex if he'd planned this from the start. 

Irritated, he glared at the woman.

“People seem to be talking over me,” he groused indignantly, “which is fascinating and rare. And forbidden. I'll come back to you.”

This only elicited a bored smile from Gwen. 

Hmpf, no respect for authority. But well, there were still more people he could give shit to. This Olivia Colasanto for example who he, despite her vehement protests, brought outside for a start to get her to headquarters for interrogation. 

Satisfied, he turned to Rex again. “So, these are the Torchwood clowns?”

Rex made a confirming noise. 

“Torchwood did more to piece this together than the entire CIA!” Gwen bristled. 

“You're that English girl, Cooper. Have I got that right?”

Ianto as well as Jack made warning noises, and looked at each other amused. Ianto sighed inwardly.  These stupid Americans. Was it so hard to grab that Great-Britain and England weren't the same? Provided they even knew where the island was situated.

“No, I'm not English, and I'm not a girl,” Gwen shot back, and she had to really hold back not to deck this snobbish American like she'd done with Lyn on the plane.

“Gwen, this is Allen Shapiro,” Esther desperately tried to mediate. “Don't. Really, don't.”

“Well, he's not scaring me.”

Go girl. Why should Torchwood even care who this guy was. Just stormed in here, and wanted to seize control of the whole operation although he had absolutely no clue what was going on here, and he probably wouldn't understand in the first place. Full of patriotic affinity, Ianto planted himself next to Gwen determinedly.

“I am sick of her already,” Shapiro growled. “Can we deport her? Let's deport her.”

Jack and Ianto hurried to Gwen's assistance when one of the CIA guys wanted to grab her to lead her outside. Even Rex seemed to think this a little over the top since Gwen had proven to be useful in his eyes which he tried to explain to Shapiro.

But the man didn't seem to be very impressed by this. “Did you sleep with her?”

“Pardon me!?” Gwen cried indignantly.

“No, Sir, I did not,” Rex sighed a little exasperated.

“Because most women that bitter, you've slept with,” was Shapiro's logical conclusion to Gwen's fury.

“Why the Hell does everybody in this stupid country think I have an affair with anyone?!” Gwen cried indignant, and looked from Ianto to Jack who simply shrugged while Shapiro was busy giving Esther a dressing down. Then he turned to Jack.

“And what is it with you, Red Baron?”

Jack sighed exasperatedly, and Ianto growled under bated breath. Why did everybody have to insult the coat?!

“You got Snoopy up your ass?” Shapiro continued crudely which finally made Ianto lose it even if the rest seemed to find this awfully funny. 

“No, normally just me,” he stated impassively, and he looked down his nose onto the tall CIA agent whose face showed something like surprise for a moment. 

Jack appreciated Ianto's heroic intervention in defence of his honour, mind you, but they really didn't need a pissing contest just now. He would show his gratitude towards Ianto at a more opportune time. Instead, he turned to Shapiro with an equally impassive face (he'd learned from the best after all). “While you're wasting time, Mr. Shapiro, we've got the names of the people who are responsible f or causing the Miracle. I suggest we get to work.”

“Torchwood is gonna work for the CIA?” Shapiro chuckled.

“I think the CIA can work for Torchwood, if you're lucky,” Jack retorted, drawing himself up to his full height.

Only because Ianto wasn't allowed a pissing match with Shapiro didn't mean that Jack on the other hand wasn't allowed as well. He was the boss after all.

Shapiro scrutinised him for a moment with a menacing, small smile before he turned to Rex.  “We've got a plane ready and waiting twenty minutes away,” he explained. “The sooner we pool our resources, the sooner we can end this thing.” He clapped his hands. “All right, let's go. Everybody out.”

“What about him?” Jack protested, and indicated Angelo. “We've got a very sick man here.” 

“Didn't you read the news? Nobody dies. There's a nurse around here somewhere. You have two minutes. Don't leave them alone.” Shapiro glared at one of his agents, then marched from the room. 

Left were Jack, Ianto and Gwen. The thought of leaving Angelo behind completely helpless made Jack very uneasy,  but Ianto had no idea how they could prevent this. And unfortunately, Shapiro was right. A nurse would be best suited to care for Angelo while they should do what they did best in turn.  Save the world.

 

Which turned out very different from what they'd planned, though, because the sudden explosion of the SUV in the driveway which killed Friedkin as well as Olivia Colasanto, postponed their departure from the Colasanto's property indefinitely. While in the corridor, Ianto made sure that the CIA continued to romp about the crime scene, and Jack returned to Angelo to finally have a few minutes alone with him so that he could say goodbye. Even if it would be a highly one-sided conversation.

But only after a few minutes, Ianto, followed by Gwen and the others, hurried back inside the sick room, alerted by Jack's cries for help.

 

Angelo was dead. As incredible as that may sound. And, as Shapiro confirmed only a little while later, he was the only person on Earth who had been able to die. And since Shapiro didn't want to let them go, they were condemned to inaction for the time being.

Now, Ianto sat next to Jack on the bare mattress since the CIA had bagged everything that Angelo had touched. The Captain hadn't moved for ages. Instead, he stared about with an empty gaze. He probably was in shock.

Sympathetically, Ianto leaned against Jack, and took his hand. He couldn't do anything more. He wouldn't force him to talk. When Jack was ready, then he would talk. Until then, Ianto would just sit here beside him.

In silent support, Gwen sat behind them in an armchair, and waited. 

At some point, Jack started tapping his index finger nervously onto Ianto's hand even if the rest of his body still was as if in a trance. It irritated Ianto, but he wouldn't stop this nervous quirk. 

Until he froze.

The tapping was much too rhythmical to simply be a nervous twitch. He focussed more closely on Jack's movements.

And then, he understood. They were Morse-code. It was so simple!

Jack wanted to tell him something without risking somebody else overhearing them.

_Kissed him – then he died_ , Jack signalled Ianto.

_ Reverse effect to the general case? _ , Ianto tapped back, a nd Jack answered with a  _Seems so_ .

_How?_

_ Have an idea – Nobody can know. _

_ Okay – Later? _

_Yes – Have to think about getting out of here._

They both flinched when behind them, Gwen suddenly started to speak with Rhys loudly over the phone. Ianto squeezed Jack's hand, and with that, the secret conversation was over for now. They looked at her over their shoulders when she yet again accused Jack of telling nobody anything. She wasn't completely wrong about that, but at the moment, Jack saw no chance to let her in on his realisation.

And in that moment, Esther joined them to comfort Jack a little, and, hopefully, to update them on the CIA's actions. Hopefully, they had made progress with the families. 

But instead of bringing them up to date, frowning, Esther started to prod and kick at the platform under Angelo's bed. What the heck was she doing?

“What are you doing?” Jack asked irritated.

“You seen this?” she asked him. “Maybe it's the floor.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, we're going through evidence like Angelo's body did something. But the only strange thing with this room is the floor.” Laughing, she shook her head, disbelieving that she hadn't thought of this sooner. “I knew something was bugging me. Look, the bed's on a sort of platform.”

Jack stood up, showing the first real reaction to his environment in some time. He stepped up close to her. “Ester, don't, just leave it.”

And there, Ianto knew. Whatever had caused Angelo's death, and whatever had inverted Jack's normally positive energy, it was actually inside the flo or. And now, Esther was in the process of uncovering it. Alarmed, he stood up, and joined Jack. He threw a discrete look out of the door, but nobody was to be seen in the corridor. Yet.

She blinked at Jack incomprehensively. “But look, it's not part of the original design. It can't be.”

“Esther, seriously. Listen to me. Don't say another word. Just leave it.”

“Jack?” Gwen noticed something was wrong now as well, only Esther hadn't grasped what the warning in Jack's voice was supposed to mean. 

“It's the floor,” Esther confirmed to herself after she'd caught the meaningful gazes Jack had given Gwen. But she still didn't get that Jack didn't want for this to come to light. 

“Esther, stop, right now,” Jack hissed for the last time.

Because right that moment, Shapiro came back into the room.

He laughed triumphantly as he held up a cigarette with relish to herald the theory circulating in Washington that cancer cells should have become mortal through the Miracle, ergo, he could taking up smoking again. Jack turned away from Esther who stared at him disbelievingly, and he threw Shapiro a winning, interested smile.

But Shapiro wasn't stupid. He'd noticed the uneasy glances they'd given each other because he turned into the professional agent again at once... at least as professional as a man of his calibre could get.

“Now,” he said, “does somebody want to tell me what's going on between you four?”

“Nothing,” Jack assured relaxed, turning up his charm a notch.

Shapiro looked suspiciously from one to the other. With Gwen and Ianto, he met an experienced pokerface, but Esther was no match for Shapiro's sharp gaze, and to be truthful, she didn't want to. Not if whatever Jack kept a secret could help to stop the Miracle, and in the course of that, help to save her sister and nieces. 

“I'm sorry, Jack.” She looked at Shapiro. “I think there's something under the floor.”

She'd barely spoken these words, a flurry of activity broke out.

Men in disease-protective clothing were fetched who removed the platform. And it revealed a mosaic-like panel with strange patterns.

Ianto's whole body froze for a split-second. He knew this object. He'd personally catalogued it at the Torchwood Three Hub, choosing a safe place for it in the archives. He wasn't sure if Gwen recognised it, but Jack undoubtedly did. He must have suspected the whole time what was hidden under the bed – which Angelo had obviously salvaged from the Hub's ruins –, probably since the moment his normally healing kiss had killed Angelo. 

They all stood surrounding the panel, and stared at it fascinated. Rex and Esther threw Jack reproachful looks once and again.

“Captain Harkness, what is that?” Shapiro didn't lose any time as soon as his men had left. 

“No idea,” was Jack's equally as swift reply.

“Jack, tell us what it is,” Esther demanded beseechingly, “cos if you could hear my sister volunteering to be categorised, you would help.”

“Look, if he says he doesn't know, he doesn't know, okay?” Gwen stated almost bored, but Shapiro didn't believe one word. 

“I've read the Torchwood file,” he snapped. “Are this materials extraterrestrial?”

“I said he doesn't know,” Gwen groused commandingly. “Now, get out of his face.”

But Shapiro continued unfazed. “The file also says that Cooper and Harkness inevitably form an alliance. Together with you, Mr. Jones, Harkness' lover if I'm correctly informed, although according to the files, you should be dead. However. At any rate, the best results can be achieved by separating them.” He threw them a pointed, smug stare.

When none of the three made a move to say anything, Shapiro turned to his men.  “Okay, get them out of here. And I mean it this time. Deport them. They're no longer welcome in the United States. Get them out of the country.”

Shapiro's agents grabbed Gwen and Ianto to lead them away. Tumult erupted.

Until now, Ianto had stayed calm, had stayed in the background to observe, but now that he realised what Shapiro planned, panic seized him, infusing every single cell in his body.

He started struggling as fierce as Gwen who breathed fire and brimstone, even tuning out Jack's protests that way. 

“Jack, no!” Driving his elbow into the face of the agent who wanted to lead him away, Ianto broke lose, and bolted for Jack, before any of the CIA men could even blink. “Jack, no, you promised!” he pleaded with him breathlessly, clinging to Jack for dear life. “I can't lose you again. Please!” 

“Leave him alone!” Jack yelled at the agents who wanted to make a grab for Ianto, his tone of voice sounding so intimidating that even these hard-boiled men stopped instinctively. Looking for advise, they turned to Shapiro who shook his head.

“You have two minutes,” he announced to Jack who threw a devastating look at the CIA man before turning to his upset lover again.

“Jack,” Ianto whimpered. 

“Shh, you won't lose me,” Jack tried to calm the younger man down. He tenderly put his hands around Ianto's face. “We'll see each other again soon,” he promised, but even this couldn't calm Ianto down completely. His haunted gaze flitted over Jack's face restlessly in a desperate attempt to soak up as much of Jack as possible. In that moment, Jack realised only too clearly how young Ianto still was. Most of the time, he tended to forget that. He bend forward, and kissed Ianto ardently. He didn't know how it felt to Ianto, but for Jack, this kiss wasn't a good-bye but a promise. He didn't plan on letting his actions be dictated by the CIA, and would be out of here as fast as possible. He'd already lost one lover today in this house; he wouldn't lose the other as well. 

“Go with them,” he murmured against Ianto's lips when they separated hesitantly. 

Ianto nodded painfully, and now let himself be led away by the agents who already started to tug at his arms. He held Jack's gaze until he disappeared around the corner.

With mixed feelings, Jack gazed after them until Gwen's fervent swearing was the only thing still attesting to the presence of the two people he held most dear on this planet.

 

At first, both of them still sulked away quietly on the plane while their blood pressure got the chance to go down again, but after the first two hours during which the two Torchwood agents had each dwelled on their own thoughts, frustrations, and homicidial ideas concerning certain CIA agents, they more and more registered the other's presence, and they were glad to have each other here and now. Esther was sweet and kind, and she tried her best, and Rex on good days was only a nuisance, but there were things which had created an inextricable link between Gwen and Ianto with which nobody, save for Jack and maybe Rhys, could compete.

Even if Ianto had never felt completely comfortable with Gwen – her loud, impulsive manner the complete opposite to his own character although both of them just wanted to do what was right, but having fucked up completely more than once, adding to that his own insecurities that she was more important to Jack than him –, this intimate connection couldn't be denied.

Gwen seemed to feel the same because at some point, she clutched his hand lying between them on the arm rest, and broke the silence with a melancholic “I'm glad you're with me”.

He returned her smile with the same melancholy, both of their thoughts with Jack in that moment even if, despite everything, Gwen's circled in part around the happy reunion with her family, too. “Me too.”

“Just like old times, hm.”

He grunted drily. “Nothing's like old times, Gwen.” Not even him. Especially not him.

“You know how I mean that.”

“Yeah.” And despite everything, it felt good somehow. It was familiar. Like coming home after a long time of being away; you were happy about it, but it hurt nonetheless. Especially the unsolved problems between them.

“Are you... happy?” Gwen asked uncertainly after a while, they still held their hands clasped tightly together. He looked questioningly at her from the side. She shrugged. “Not now, of course. But with Jack. Somehow, you don't seem like it. There's always something in your eyes...”

“It's this situation,” he explained finally. It wasn't a lie because it comprised the source for his uneasiness after all. “To be here again brings up lots of memories. And a whole bunch of them aren't necessarily good ones.”

“I know,” she admitted. “No matter if you or Jack, this universe or the other, the last memories you have of this planet is death.”

Ianto sighed. That too, yes. “I'd hoped to leave this all behind me. For good. I could have strangled the Doctor when he just so told us something was coming, that we should return.”

She looked at him closely from the side. “You'd never have chickened out. No matter how much your personal baggage got you down.”

“Yep. Bloody Torchwood. In the end you can't escape it.”

Gwen grunted sarcastically. “You sound like Rhys.”

“As long as I don't start cursing Jack's name...”

“I don't think we have to be concerned about that.”

“Me neither.”

For a while, they giggled together so that the other passengers probably thought that they now'd lost it completely.

“I know you'd rather be with Jack right now. I'd be, too.” If she noticed, she ignored the unhappy sound he made at her comment. “But you'll meet Anwen. She always manages to take my mind off things. And I'm sure my mum will be happy to see a familiar face.”

“She can't even remember me, Gwen,” Ianto disagreed, and he himself would rather have forgotten a lot from the day of the wedding as well because involuntarily, images of Gwen and Jack forced themselves to the forefront of his mind, dancing together intimately, lost in their own world so that only after some time Ianto had managed to get through to them, feeling like an idiot at it, like a puppy begging for attention but who was ignored by its master and mistress.

“Ah yes,” Gwen sighed. “If I think about it, I'd rather they could remember the wedding, and instead would be allowed to forget this whole mess now. Looking at it in the aftermath, the whole situation had a certain charm. Whereas this...”

“Hmhm, but only considered with much gallows humour.”

Gwen shrugged. “A Torchwood wedding from the books.”

“Gwen,” Ianto replied dryly. “Although there is a pamphlet for every situation imaginable, some of them I wrote myself, or rather, I rectified the absurd nonsense Jack rhymed together there, but there is no, and I repeat, no pamphlet about a Torchwood wedding.”

“Hm... but if there was one, this one would have been exactly what would have passed for a storybook wedding according to Torchwood standards.” 

Chuckling, Ianto squeezed her hand even if it rubbed him the wrong way that unconsciously, everything had to be about her once again. “Can't disagree there.”

“What's her like, the other me?” she asked after a while hesitantly. She wanted to have asked for a long time, but somehow she didn't have had the courage until now, apart from not finding any time for questions. 

Now it was Ianto's turn to shrug. “Not much different from you. Our relationship was...” He bit his bottom lip to stop himself, but he'd already said too much.

“What?” Gwen then promptly asked, a breathy, nervous undertone in her voice.

Ianto sighed, and closed his eyes for a moment. Maybe it would be better to get things straight finally instead of bottling everything up, and poisoning their relationship with this.

“Gwen...” He looked firmly at her. “I think very highly of you, but to be honest, you are the reason I didn't want to return to Earth.” 

Horrified, she reared back from him as if he had struck her, a hurt expression in her wide eyes. “What?!” she whispered shell-shocked.

Ianto sighed again before he took a deep breath, and spoke once more. “You love him,” he clarified, and he didn't have to specify whom he meant. “And I understand. But the problem is, he loves you, too.”

“Ianto... I... I would never... Rhys.”

“Oh please.” He sounded a little sharper than intended which made both of them flinch painfully. “Don't tell me that you didn't think about it. Rhys was forgotten the moment Jack smiled at you, and reached out his hand with the prospect of adventures which Rhys could never offer you. Even at your own wedding. I don't hold your feelings against you but that you never know when to let things be. Even when Jack and I...”

“That's been instinctual,” she tried to defend herself weakly. “He kept flirting.”

“We all know it's as instinctual like breathing for him.” He didn't want to defend Jack, and to pile all the blame on her that he always had felt so inferior, but fact was that she more than once had taken liberties that Jack never would have let the others of the team get away with, not even Ianto. His connection to humanity he called her, similar to the Doctor did his companions, but she was too human, almost overwhelming, and in her blazing light, Jack oversaw that the others were as human as Gwen. They only hadn't shown it that obviously and blatantly but had hidden it behind biting sarcasm, shyness, or professional politeness.

Tears had gathered in her eyes which Ianto couldn't bear in that moment, and she nibbled on her lower lip. But since he didn't want to spend the rest of the flight in a fight or icy silence, let alone having a falling out with her for the rest of their stay here on Earth, he tried to show more conciliatory. “I know you didn't do in on purpose, but the fact remains that you always were first for him, and I was jealous of that even when I'm not exactly proud of it.”

“There never was a reason for being jealous,” she choked out because even if she worshipped Jack, and yes, had to admit that she'd favoured him over Rhys often enough, it was Rhys whom she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. Jack was much too larger than life, too irresistible for ordinary mortals – in the true sense of the word –, and because of that nobody with whom you could be happy in the long run. She'd realised this over the years. She got an inkling how Ianto must have felt in the past. Everybody would have inferiority complexes by Jack Harkness' side. And that he'd indeed favoured her all the time which, she now realised guiltily, she'd taken for granted to top it off, surely hadn't helped things. 

“When he didn't wake up after Abbadon for days, it should have been my job to keep watch over him, not yours,” Ianto continued. “But I didn't have your courage, or your unwavering faith. After that I swore to myself, no matter what he may feel for me, even if I'm only an office affair that at least I wouldn't be a coward any more but I would stand by him from on. If you could show him this loyalty, then I could as well, and even if it only was to hold him tight when he resurrected so that he didn't have to wake up alone.”

Gwen nodded. She could imagine that Jack was terrified to return to life completely alone. After being buried alive for two thousand years...

“You gave him that support,” she assured him.

“Maybe, yeah. I was convenient. He needs someone to care for him. And before you protest, I know that he felt something for me. I just never had illusions that it could be love. But although I knew that, for him, I would always be second best, or even third, the thought of it being _me_ he came home to in the evening, who he entrusted with things – few as they may have been – he didn't even tell you, pulled me through. Things like Flat Holm. Maybe even this was only just a manifestation of rational thinking from his side than trust. After all, it was my job to do all the administration for the facility. And maybe, the same was true when he came to me in the evenings. He couldn't go home with the you, nor the Doctor, least of all for sex, but with me, he knew that I wouldn't deny him either sex or the company he needed not to be lonely...”

Gwen had to suppress a sob as she realized how much all of them had overlooked Ianto's clearly obvious feelings all this time, Jack included. He'd fought so hard for his place at Jack's side, and although he was accepted as his faithful shadow, as a devoted, pitiful puppy that would give up everything just for a kind word from Jack as Owen once had characterized their relationship, disgusted and pityingly, none of them honoured that Ianto was  _entitled_ to this place at Jack's side, that he was more than an office affair. It may have begun as that, but it didn't end like that. As obvious as Ianto's feelings for Jack always may have been, Gwen never had been sure of Jack's feelings for Ianto. Often enough, her thoughts had strayed in the same scarcely benevolent direction as Owen's, and then, she had pitied him. She was of the opinion that he deserved better than an emotionally highly unhealthy relationship with a man who cared, but was much too skittish for what Ianto wished for. And on the other hand, at the beginning she thought that someone like Jack as well deserved better than the boring, shy boy who brought them their coffee. Someone like her. When she now thought about it, she was deeply ashamed for these thoughts. 

But now... when she looked at him now, then there was something different about him. His whole demeanour was... more confident, and somehow peaceful. Gone was the shy insecurity over Jack's feelings for him which he'd always hidden behind cool professionalism, hindering only himself with it... no matter that this Ianto came from a totally different universe; she sensed that in that regard, the two had been the same.

God... that was all so confusing! Dealing with the same men, and then not at the same time somehow...

“Y-you said _felt_ something,” she eventually choked out.

He took pity on her, and brushed away the tears from her cheeks which ultimately had fallen nonetheless before he took her hand tightly once more. He smiled at her encouragingly. “It took a long time until Jack managed to make me understand that he really loves me,” he confessed. “It's hard to believe that he wanted to be with  _me_ of all people. My immortality made us equals. At least, that's what I told myself because in reality, we've been equals long before that. It just took the burden from us that one day, Jack would be alone again. It took two years in space full of surreal adventures, far away from Earth and all its ballast connected with it for me to finally accept that _I_ am first for him, that he really loves me, and that I'm not just a feasible matter of course.” 

Sometimes, Jack had given this impression, back in the day, before the 456, and when he'd realised that, it had been too late to show Ianto what he really felt for him. In the face of a second chance, he'd pleaded for forgiveness even if it wasn't his Ianto he could beg for this forgiveness. But nonetheless, the other Ianto had needed it, too.

That's it, Gwen realised. But it made sense. The certainty of being loved in return could be unbelievably liberating. She wished him all the luck in the universe. Both of them.

If not for...

“I'm sorry,” she whispered. “Can you forgive me my behaviour?“

“Yeah, I can,” Ianto replied without hesitation. “I forgave him, so I can forgive you, too. But actually, there is nothing to forgive. We all are who we are. My insecurities aren't your fault, and although both of you aren't perfect, I don't want you to change.” 

She let out a shaky breath, glad to have received this absolution, and for a little while, they kept silent again.

Still a little tense, she tried to steer the conversation on more neutral terrain. “What's it been like travelling through space?  Jack didn't really want to tell me anything.”

Ianto responded to this only too gladly. “Fascinating,” he therefore replied promptly. “Terrifying, but also incredible. I've seen things you can't imagine.”

“Did you travel a lot?”

“All the time. When I met Jack, he worked as a freelance agent, detective, whatever, to...”

“To forget?”

“Yes.” Ianto took a deep breath. “We kept this up together, little by little I got the hang of it. But at the beginning, I've been pretty much overwhelmed with everything. Always a new exotic, or terrifying planet you can't even imagine, and the only thing Jack could remember about this worlds were some sex stories or other he'd experienced there.”

Gwen giggled sarcastically. “Did you expect otherwise.”

Ianto grinned back. “Not really.”

 


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13 – The Gathering**

He had the feeling he'd go crazy. Cooped up in Mrs. Cooper's house which was under strict observation, he didn't dare to teleport out. After all, it wasn't only his safety that was at stake here but that of Gwen's whole family. 

So, Ianto could justifiably claim that the last two months had been the longest of his life. Although he knew that Jack was recovering, he nonetheless was worried sick for him every waking minute. He'd only spoken to him once since the incidents at the Colasanto property. Namely over the secure, non-traceable connection of their vortex manipulators. His knees had given out, making him sink onto Gwen's sofa shakily when he'd learned that Jack, only minutes after they'd taken Ianto and Gwen away, had been shot, and that it was only thanks to Esther being on the run with him that he'd survived. He'd had no idea! Solely Gwen's vigorous words had stopped him from teleporting to Jack immediately. The house was under observation, and every minute, someone from the government or whoever else could ring at the door. And when Ianto was gone without a reasonable explanation at that time...

Still being in shock, he'd ended the conversation with Jack who'd sounded so incredibly weak and pain-stricken that it had broken Ianto's heart. And since then, there was utter silence. 

Fitting to Ianto's mood, the world had lapsed into a second Great Depression, but that was the least of Ianto's worries. As soon as the Miracle was over (whenever that would be), everything would hopefully return to normal. He hoped that at this time, he would be light years away already. Maybe it was egoistical to think like that, but by now, he was of the opinion that he, but especially Jack, had sacrificed too much already for this world. Just when he thought they finally had their Happy End, something like this happened. And since they were both mortal now, there was the likely possibility that one of them wouldn't survive the Miracle, it almost  _ had _ happened. He didn't know what he should do then... 

While he wallowed in self-pity more often, Gwen flourished in critical times like these, and showed her creative – and criminal – streak. And furthermore, since it was her family that was threatened – after all, they hid her unconscious father in the basement for weeks, and once it had been a very close call as the police had searched the house –, she was in peak form. Ianto was glad that at least she was doing something. He on the other side felt, without Jack, as if an arm had been cut off, but the phantom pain was still there. Ultimately, it was pathetic, but he couldn't do anything against it. When the government had held Jack a few years ago after the explosion of the Hub, he had been desperate as well, but then, there had been something he could do. Then, he could do everything to free Jack. Now, he was condemned to idleness. He had to count on Esther while he lay low here in the house of Gwen's mother, and to distract himself, he more and more spend time with Anwen. Somehow, it was comforting to care for the baby, even if he had little use for children before that. Now, it helped him. She didn't know anything about the worries around her. Her small world was all right most of the time provided she was sated and dry.

At least he wasn't the only one on the verge of going crazy. Even Rhys became more and more restless, and he was dying to do something, and he was glad that at least he could contribute to help Gwen distributing all the stolen meds to the neighbours. Especially since he showed fits of jealousy once and again when Ianto spend too much time with Anwen. 

Poor guy. Ianto had to chuckle. The expression on his face when the police had brought Gwen back, Ianto right behind her, had been Oscar-worthy. Obviously, she hadn't told her better half of Ianto with even one word. Even Andy – who'd come by frequently in the beginning, but now he didn't have the guts any more because of the intensified search for Category One cases –, pale as a ghost, had reared back in shock, and had almost crossed himself.

He looked around, and all of a sudden, he realised something. When they stopped the Miracle on this Earth, great, but what about his own universe? Since they knew by now that the Miracle was somehow connected to Jack, to his blood to be precise, the other universe would have a problem without Jack... 

All of a sudden very determined, he let the dirty dishes be, and joined Gwen in the living room. Very good. She held Anwen in her arms, and tried to rock her to sleep. For the baby's sake, she wouldn't cause a fuss when he told her of his plans.

She looked questi oningly at him when he stopped beside her.

“I have to go see Jack,” he explained softly, and before she could open her mouth to protest, he raised a hand to stop her. “It's important. Trust me.”

She frowned. “You won't tell me what this is all about, right?”

Mutely, he shook his head.

Grunting sarcastically, she kissed Anwen on the forehead.  “Figures. You're turning into him.”

Pointedly, Ianto raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah, all right,” she hissed softly. “None of us is any better. Bloody Torchwood.”

He chuckled. “Bloody Torchwood,” he confirmed, and left her standing.

In the back of the house so that none of their observers would notice the bright flash of the teleportation, he programmed the coordinates for Jack and Esther's hideout in Scotland into his vortex manipulator, and then activated the device. 

 

Esther flinched as she discovered someone kneeling besides Jack's bed in the gloomy dark, but before she could shakily draw her weapon, she recognised Ianto. Before she could ask, he looked at her, and put one finger over his lips. She nodded in understanding, and kept silent while Ianto turned to Jack once more. He frowned when he noticed Jack's feverish state, but he continued to take a blood sample. After tucking two phials in his jacket pocket, he tenderly brushed through Jack's hair and over his cheek so that suddenly the other man's feverish sleep became more peaceful. She wanted to avert her eyes, and give them a little more privacy, but then, after Ianto'd kissed Jack gently, he rose again, and came over to her.

Relieved, she hugged him.

“How did you get in here?“ she asked in a whisper. “I thought you didn't want to come.”

He held up his wrist sporting the leather cuff. She still didn't really know what this device did, but obviously, it was some highly developed alien technology. After all, she'd already seen with her own eyes that it included a teleportation feature which was broken in Jack's device, though. She just hadn’t thought that it would work over such a great distance as well.

“I can't stay long,” he explained softly. “But for a few minutes, nobody will miss me.”

“What are you up to?”

“Providing for the future. It doesn't really concern our plans here.”

She was still confused, but she didn't want to ask either.

“How bad is he? Do you need something? I can come back with medication.”

Esther shook her head. “He's better. And I've got meds. It just takes time to heal completely.”

Together, they scrutinised Jack critically for a moment.

“Why don't you want him to know that you're here?” she asked hastily when he prepared to switch on the device again.

Ruefully, he shook his head. “I wouldn't be able to leave if he asked me to stay.”

“I understand.” She let go of his arm which she'd grabbed to stop him from leaving.

“Take care of him, yeah.”

She smiled at him reassuringly, and the concerned, anxious expression disappeared from his eyes, and made way for his usual cool-professional, polite mask.

Visibly relieved, he pushed a few buttons, and in the next second, he was gone in a blue flash.

 

He felt grotty.

So grotty.

He hadn't felt this grotty in a long time.

Although...

If you thought about it, it wasn't that long ago. Arsenic poisoning was actually one of the most horrible things he'd experienced in a long time, and it would have had the unattractive side effect of him succumbing to it for good at that time.

Now, he just felt wretched. And cranky. The damn gunshot wound healed unreasonably slow, and the regular blood loss didn't exactly make it any better.

And the worst of this whole situation was that Ianto wasn't here to comfort him. Esther was great, she'd saved his life, and cared for him as good as Ianto. But the fact remained that she wasn't Ianto.

Obviously, he missed Ianto so much that he already imagined his scent, and the echo of his lips on his own. Which was ridiculous. Ianto'd made it clear, the one time they'd talked over the bug-proofed connection of their vortex manipulators that it would be too risky to disappear from Gwen's house for a longer time. The house was being watched. Either by the CIA or by the Families, they couldn't really tell for sure.

Suddenly overcome with a familiar gnawing yearning and melancholia, he rolled over as much as his injuries and the tube protruding from his arm allowed on the small bed in their hideout, and with weak fingers, he activated his vortex manipulator. 

A smile promptly spread over his tired face as he began to watch the holographic pictures of his loved ones. As if having a premonition, Ianto had, shortly before the Hub had blown up, helped Jack to scan all the precious pictures stored away in the dented tin so that he could load them up onto his vortex manipulator.  The original pictures had been destroyed in the explosion, and it would have broken his heart to have lost them forever. His memories would fade some day inevitably, and then, these pictures would be the only things he had left of the many people he'd loved. Every single one of them deserved that he remembered them. In turn, he'd helped Ianto a while ago to do the same with the few pictures he'd brought from the other universe, stashed inside his wallet. A picture of Rhia and her family, a pi cture of the whole team, taken shortly before Owen's death, a picture of his parents and grandparents together with Ianto and Rhia as children, a photo of Ianto and Lisa, and finally one of him and his Jack. 

“Who is that?”

Esther's unexpected appearance next to him made him jump, even if he would never admit to it. For a few moments, he looked into her young, open, and trusting face before he gently pulled her to him onto the narrow bed so that they sat pressed tightly together side by side on the uncomfortable mattress.

“That's Estelle,” he explained. “We met during the war. It didn't last long, but then, nothing lasted long in those times, but I loved her very much.”

Curious, Esther regarded the sepia-toned hologram which showed Jack in his uniform together with a beautiful young woman. “You...” She had to swallow. “You really are immortal.”

“Told ya so the whole time.”

Sure, at Angelo's house they hadn't talked about nothing else, but to see evidence here and now was something completely different...

“How old are you?” she asked unsure. “How did it happen?”

Jack sighed, but decided to confide in her, if only because he didn't have anything better to do.

“I was on the road with a friend and his companion. He's a time traveller.” Interestingly, she didn't react to the word time travel. Obviously, she was prepared, contrary to Rex, to accept certain if incredible things. If aliens and the Miracle were possible, why couldn't time travel. “Far into the future, we fought against his archenemies, and I was killed. It's complicated, but his companion, Rose, brought me back to life. Unfortunately, it was forever.” 

“That's horrible,” Esther whispered compassionately.

“Sometimes more than you can imagine. But sometimes pretty exciting, too.”

“What did you do then?”

“He left me behind.” He didn't manage to hide the bitter undercurrent in his voice. “I had no idea what was going on. So I began looking for him and ended up in 19. century Earth. I adapted, and waited for him. Unfortunately, I was one hundred years early, and my vortex manipulator had burned out. So, since I was stuck there, I started working for Torchwood.” He shook his head in amusement, but at the same time full of contempt as he remembered all the naive, ignorant, and even malicious people he'd worked with. “They were like children. Barely able to handle the aliens. To this day, UNIT doesn't understand that not every alien coming to Earth plans an invasion. They shoot first, and ask never... They were the same at Torchwood. I tried to show them that some aliens are friends, but they didn't listen to me. I was just the freak who can't die. A few times, I even was the subject of their experiments because of it.”

“I know how it is,” Esther explained softly. “Men and women who come to power are hard to discourage from their beliefs. I've seen enough while being with the CIA to know that you are powerless against this although you're the one who's right. War and violence are worth more than a peaceful solution because it's easier than working out a complicated, non-violent way.” 

“You would think humanity learns from its mistakes.”

“It doesn't?” Esther asked uneasy. “There will still be war in the future?”

“Always,” Jack replied with a sigh. “The future is no Utopia.” Involuntarily, he flinched at the unintended use of the word. “The colony I've been born on in the 51. century was attacked by aliens when I was a boy. My father was killed, and my brother abducted. They only did it for killing's sake. But that's how I joined the Time Agency, and in the end met Rose and the Doctor. It's likely that I wouldn't be here today if not for this attack.”

They kept silent for a while. Esther didn't know for sure what he was talking about, didn't know what a Time Agency was, but she did have a pretty good picture of everything else, of what had driven him. Human emotions in the future seemed not really different from those today.

She took a hold of his hand in an attempt to cheer both of them up a little. “Show me more photos, yeah? And tell me about you and Ianto.”

This managed to conjure a smile on to Jack's face again. “Like I've told you already, it began with a cup of coffee.”

“I thought with a Weevil.” Even if she still didn't know what that was.

“And a Weevil,” he grinned. “And a chocolate addicted pterodactyl.”

 

Oh lovely. To top it all, they now had Oswald Danes in the house.  Not for long, Ianto hoped because sooner or later someone would kill this man. Although Rhys had stopped Gwen from bashing in Danes' head with a pan, now, he was the one who started to go spare. Ianto feared that all the stress and pressure of the whole situation was becoming too much for the normally peaceful Rhys so that he needed a catalyst for his aggressions.

But then, Danes mentioned Jack's name, and that he wanted to talk to him in exchange for the name of the man who had caused the Miracle, and at that, even Ianto became a little rough with this weasel since his demands sounded suspiciously like some kind of threat to Ianto's ears. 

But it was no use. If Danes really had a hint that would bring them nearer to their goal of solving the whole affair, then they did have no choice but to get Jack. 

He exchanged a serious gaze with Gwen. She nodded which he returned.

He flipped open his vortex manipulator.

 

Nervously, Ianto waited in the corridor, and stared at Gwen standing outside who was speaking on the phone to the guy watching them from the house on the opposite side of the street.  It wouldn't b e long now, only a few minutes until he'd hold Jack in his arms again. 

His heart missed a beat when he finally spotted Jack and Esther scurrying from the opposite house after Jack had given this guy some Retcon. 

Gwen was in Ianto's way, and thus was the first one to pull Jack and Esther into her arms exuberantly, but then nothing stood between him and Jack any more. They looked at each other intently for a moment, the whole world around them seemed to have come to a stand still.

Then, the spell was broken, and they were in each other's arms, losing themselves in an intimate, passionate kiss that couldn't even be disturbed by Rhys' sarcastic “Guys, get a room”.

But in the end, it was futile, they had to face reality again. And that sat bound on the kitchen floor in the person of Oswald Danes. 

Not that what Oswald had to tell them was very helpful as Esther soon revealed, but nonetheless, there was some truth to his objection that, although Harry Bosco was only a synonym for a camouflage tactic, the families had commissioned Jilly Kitzinger of all people to camouflage something. And this could be the key to all of their problems. Why would the families hire this woman to alter information for them? Was this about the Blessing?

And Ianto had to give this guy his due; he knew how to negotiate. He was damned attentive. He didn't only know how to hide, but to observe as well. That he knew that Gwen and Rhys were hiding someone in the basement gave him the upper hand for the moment, no matter how much Rhys may threaten him. 

One thing became clear very soon. Whatever the families tried to cover up, it was in Shanghai. And privately, they all thought the same. Nothing short of the Blessing was in Shanghai. The call with Rex – their last resort since none of them could speak Mandarin, but they had to know what had been translated subtly wrong into English in this ominous news feed about some fire that had been on Jilly's laptop – confirmed this. The injured man from the video said that the Blessing had saved him. Bingo.

“It doesn't m ean anything,” Rhys chimed in over from the sofa. “We'd all say that. He survived a fire.”

That was true though.

“Hold on, hold on, hold on. Would somebody shut the husband up, please?” Rex demanded over the phone.

“That's the Mandarin,” Rex continued, “but the original Wu dialect is different. Are you ready for this? He didn't say, 'It's a blessing my life was saved', he said, 'The Blessing saved my life'. They mistranslated it on purpose.”

After that, there seemed to be no doubt any more. The Blessing had to be in Shanghai. The only question was, how should they get there? China had closed all of its borders. 

“You could take the slow boat,” Oswald sing-songed from the kitchen, having heard everything of course .

So, while they had to think of something, Esther found another trace that led them to Buenos Aires this time. Two blood banks at different ends of the world, both destroyed shortly before the Miracle began. This couldn't be a coincidence. 

Suddenly, there was a loud bang, and the front door crashed open. Masked and heavenly armed police forces stormed in, and aimed their weapons on everyone. Jack barely managed to pull Danes into the shadows of the dark kitchen, turning their backs to the officers before they could recognise Danes. But they weren't here because of him. They had come for Gwen's father. This official from the other day wouldn't let it go. He was certain that they hid Gwen's father inside the house, and this time, he came prepared. Armed with a thermal-image app, he searched the basement, and to everyone's shock, he made a find. 

All their begging and pleading was fruitless. Within minutes, they took Gwen's unconscious father away to dispose off him in the ovens in the near future like the new laws dictated. 

Jack as well as Ianto would have liked nothing more than to intervene, but they couldn't. As painful as it was, their mission was more important than Geraint Cooper's fate. Helpless, they had to allow them to cart him away with an ambulance. His desperate family was left behind.

But this disaster only encouraged Gwen to find a way to Shanghai, no matter how, and no matter the cost. 

Filled with new, grim determination, they all gathered again in the living room after the police had gone, and finally, Jack knew a way to get to Shanghai undetected. They would have to work with arms dealers, but _who_ they were wasn't of any importance in their current situation. 

The only question was, what should they do about Buenos Aires. They could get there without problems, but should they follow this trace? They only had hints about another blood bank there on Jilly's laptop, but no clues to the Blessing. 

In the end, embarrassing but true, it was Rhys, together with an inflatable toy globe, who made them all suddenly realise that Shanghai and Buenos Aires were situated on exact opposite sides of the world. They we re antipodes. And PhiCorp knew. The PhiCorp-logo symbolised exactly these two antipodes. Finally, they were on the right trace. 

 

“Wow, you're really good with her,” Gwen told him softly, as she came up to Ianto who held the sleeping Anwen in his arms. “Normally she doesn't go to sleep this fast.”

He threw her a rather shy glance, but didn't reply.

Thoughtfully, Gwen reclined against the wall, and still watched Ianto who had stopped a while ago to wander around the gloomy part of the living room again and again to get Anwen to go to sleep. After their clarifying talk on the plane, she was deeply ashamed to admit that only now she looked at him with completely different, more positive eyes. She just hadn't wanted to see, until now, that he was worthy to be at Jack's side. More than worthy. “Have you ever thought of having children of your own?” Gwen asked carefully.

Ianto t hrew a swift gaze in the direction of the kitchen where Jack was currently tied up with organising their secret journey to Shanghai. “I've thought about it, yeah,” Ianto eventually confessed quietly.

“But?” Gwen pressed on. “Somewhere in the whole universe or the future it has to be possible.”

“It is. Jack even implied that in theory he would be able to carry children – don't ask, a 51. century thing –, but...” Ianto sighed sadly. “They would be mortal.”

“Although _both_ parents are immortal?”

“Our DNA didn't change only because we became immortal. The whole thing's playing out on a molecular level. It's horrible enough to have one immortal parent. But both...”

Thoughtfully, Gwen gnawed on her lower lip. “I know it sounds horrible, parents shouldn't survive their children, but that didn't stop Jack from having them. And I understand why. To some extent, children meant normality for him, even if he knew that he would survive them one day. To deny himself this chance, and instead cut himself off from everything because in the end he would be the one being left behind would have meant giving up. But now he's not alone any more. And it's worth it, believe me.”

Contemplatively, Ianto looked away from the kitchen, and down at Anwen. “Yeah, maybe,” he finally confessed haltingly. “Maybe one day.”

He looked up when he felt Gwen's hand on his shoulder in an affectionate gesture. She smiled at him warmly. “You're a natural father, Ianto. Don't miss this. There will be safer times again. Then you will see ev'rything in a whole new light.”

She encouragingly squeezed his shoulder, then left him alone.

 

Finally, peace had settled over the house. Esther had left for the airport already to meet Rex in Buenos Aires, and the rest, the original Torchwood team – plus Oswald Danes, unfortunately –, would leave in the morning. That left them some time to catch up on badly needed sleep. Furthermore, it gave Gwen and her family the time they needed to mourn together before they  parted ways for an indefinite amount of time. 

And Jack and Ianto finally got the chance to spend one precious night together. They needed this closeness to each other much more than sleep, and when Ianto led Jack into his room, they pounced on each other only seconds after the door had closed softly behind them.

Vigorously, Ianto pressed Jack against the door, but he froze when Jack became rigid in his arms.

Jack tried to suppress the painful grimace flitting over his face when Ianto pressed him against the door with his full weight, but it was no use, Ianto had noticed already. As he had done earlier in the hallway when Gwen had embraced Jack so exuberantly.

“Let me see,” he demanded, but Jack tried to shove away his seeking hands.

“Let it go. I'm fine.” Jack tried to distract Ianto through a kiss and through his own wandering hands, but to no avail. 

“If you're fine, then let me see,” Ianto countered adamantly. “And don't tell me you're so desperate that you can't even manage to take off your clothes beforehand.” 

“Too risky, we don't have enough time. We shouldn't waste it with arguing.” 

“I agree. And now off with your clothes.”

Jack sighed, and let himself sink back onto the bed in defeat.

It wasn't as if Ianto didn't yearn as much for Jack as he did for him, but in this case, he had to set priorities before he made it worse through one careless move. He gasped in shock when he finally caught a glimpse of the still gaping wound in Jack's abdomen. “I... I thought it had gotten better.”

Jack grimaced. “It has.”

“Then we should...”

“No!” Jack's hand struck out like a snake, and closed tightly around Ianto's wrist to keep him from pulling down his shirt and T-Shirt again. Beseechingly, he looked up at Ianto. “Please,” Jack whispered. 

Ianto returned his gaze for a long time, discovering the same emotions in Jack's eyes that had him in their tight grip as well. Love, desperation, lust, hope, fear.

They'd already been cheated of a last time together, a long time ago in an abandoned warehouse. And then, it had been too late.

But not today.

Ianto nodded shakily, and carefully bend down to kiss Jack while he equally as carefully straddled his thighs. Jack's iron-tight grip around Ianto's wrist loosened, and he sighed into the kiss.

“You won't move, do you hear me!” Ianto murmured against Jack's lips, and a shudder ran through the Captain at the authoritative tone.

“Aye, Sir.”

Ianto sat up again with a satisfied look on his face, and swiftly but with controlled movements pulled his shirt from his shoulders.

Jack had to swallow heavily when Ianto's hands crept towards his belt, the soft chiming when he opened the buckle unnaturally loud in his ears. He had to resist temptation to slip his hand into the enticing gap of Ianto's opened trousers to feel his lover again at last. Fortunately, Ianto stood up again in that moment before Jack could succumb to temptation. Without turning their gazes from each other, Ianto made short work of his remaining clothes before he knelt next to Jack onto the bed. They still looked each other deeply in the eye when Ianto stripped Jack of trousers and underwear, and only then, when they were both naked, did they dare to absorb the long-awaited sight of naked skin.

“We... we don't have,” Ianto stammered, and couldn't turn his gaze from Jack's body.

“Trouser pocket,” the Captain croaked with effort because his gaze as well clung to Ianto's body.

With shaking fingers, Ianto fished the small bottle of lube from Jack's trouser pocket (he should have counted on Jack coming prepared even in a crisis), and climbed on top of him again. Jack's hands flew to Ianto's hips immediately, clinging fast to them. A soft moan escaped him in spite of himself as his dripping erection was pushed between Ianto's ass cheeks when his lover had settled down on him.

“Don't move, got that,” Ianto reminded him again. Then, he reached around, and slipped his slick fingers inside himself. He moaned, and closed his eyes. It had been ages.

Jack moaned as well, but he couldn't turn his gaze away from Ianto. He didn't want to miss even one second of how his lover lost himself in the ecstasy of his own touch.

“Ianto...” he whimpered, and Ianto opened his eyes to look down on him. He nodded, and with a small gasp, he pulled his fingers from his body. Shaking, Jack took the bottle from his hand to slather his own cock with a generous amount of lube. If it had been Ianto doing it, he would have come on the spot. 

With his clean hand, he supported Ianto when he raised himself up on his knees, and gently wrapped his fingers around Jack's cock to position him. Then he lowered himself down. Both men moaned loudly when Jack's cock forced itself into Ianto's body, stretching the fluttering ring of muscle relentlessly until he was sucked up by the almost unbearably tight, hot passage.

Jack's other hand, slippery from lube, closed around Ianto's cock, and started to stroke up and down the rock-hard shaft.

“Oh God,” Ianto breathed in a choked voice, and desperately tried to suck in enough air into his lungs. He had the feeling that he'd never before felt Jack this intense. He felt his warmth, the pulsing of his blood through every single vein running along his cock. He felt the mild pain he always felt when Jack sunk into him just because of his sheer size, but at the same time, he felt the steadily pulsing ecstasy like little electric shocks when Jack's glans pressed against his prostate. And he felt how his body eagerly opened up to the intruder, sucking him up to keep him inside of him for as long as possible.

Jack barely dared to breath. The sight that presented itself to him, Ianto, completely captivated in his pleasure, his head thrown back, his eyes closed, was a picture he never grew tired off. His trembling fingers clawed itself deeper into the flesh of Ianto's hip to find a grip, and involuntarily, his other hand squeezed tighter as well. An aroused moan slipped from Ianto's mouth when Jack's hand clung to his erection like a vice, the feeling coursing through him half pain, half pleasure. Instinctively, his muscles contracted around Jack so that the Captain let out a choked moan as well. He couldn't help himself, he jerked his hips up, only a gentle twitch really, to bury himself that little bit deeper into Ianto. But it wasn't enough. It never would be enough. He'd have loved nothing better than to crawl inside of him, to melt them into one creature so that they would never be apart again.

Suddenly, every thought in his head was silenced almost violently when Ianto started to move up and down, the sight of the flexing of his thigh muscles under white skin an additional incentive for Jack.

The younger man cried out when he dropped down onto Jack with his full weight so that the rock-hard shaft inside of him rammed against his prostate with full force. Fireworks went off inside him, and he wanted more. Over and over, he forced his body to move up and down in Jack's lap, held together only by the hard flesh spearing his insides.

Although he wasn't allowed to, Jack couldn't help himself; the next time Ianto's body dropped down on his cock, he thrust up his hips. Not very hard, not in this position, but it was enough to rip a noise from Ianto half moan, half choked cry.

Swiftly, Jack's hand flew from Ianto's hip up to his face to put his fingers over Ianto's mouth. They didn't need to wake the whole house. His breathing sped up when Ianto kept in fact silent because of that, but now he took Jack's fingers into his mouth, beginning to suck at them obscenely. At the same time, Ianto wrapped his hand around Jack's fist to get him to continue jerking him off. A little guilty, Jack allowed Ianto to guide his hand since by now, it only held Ianto's cock loosely in his hand. Ianto moaned, and the vibrations of that moan transferred onto Jack's fingers in his mouth. But then he let them slip from the moist warmth, sliding his hand into Ianto's neck to pull him down into a filthy, passionate kiss. Their sweat-slicked chests lay pressed tightly together so that their nipples rubbed against each other with every thrust of Jack's hips catapulting Ianto a little forward. He slid his hand down Ianto's back, tracing Ianto's spine and the perfect swell of his buttocks. He let his fingers slip between Ianto's cheeks, and then he felt it; this one spot where they were connected as intimately as humanly possible. Shakily, he traced the skin of the tightly stretched rim of Ianto's passage spanning around his cock, felt the fluttering and contracting of the muscles under his fingertip as well as against his erection while thrusting into him. He couldn't help himself, he slipped his moist finger into the stretched opening together with his erection, only the tip, but he had to feel it. Ianto gasped throatily, and a whimper escaped him involuntarily, but he didn't stop Jack. In the past, he would have endured the pain just to satisfy Jack, but these times were a thing of the past. Today, he wouldn't allow it if he wouldn't want it himself.

The knowledge that another part of Jack was inside of him hauled Ianto into climax. His body reared up, he plunged down one last time, for a last time, Jack's glans collided with his prostate, and for one last time, his hips jerked forward to shove his cock through Jack's fist. Then he froze, and a shiver wrecked his whole body, so strong like he'd never felt before.

He came, and came, and when his flagging body couldn't support himself any more, Jack's arms were there to catch him. He felt his own come, sticky and warm between their upper bodies when he sunk down onto Jack, slightly to the left to spare Jack's injury, and he felt the tremble running through Jack now as well when he came, felt the hot wetness spilling into him, and he felt his own fluttering muscles milking Jack's cock from even the last drop of come. And the whole time, Jack held him tight.

 

Jack crouched down beside Ianto, and for a few minutes, they silently looked out over the bottomless black ocean.

“Seems as if our adventure draws to a close,” he murmured as innocuous as possible.

“Hmhm,” Ianto made, never turning his gaze from the ocean to give Jack the time he needed to say what he obviously had trouble saying. 

“What're we gonna do after all this?” he finally came out with it. “Do you want to stay on Earth, or...”

For a while, Ianto thought about this, although it wasn't the first time that he too asked himself this question. The reason why he, up until now, had always abandoned all thoughts of this was that they first had to get out of this whole situation in one piece. To march into the centre of the conspiracy being the last two mortals on this planet wasn't really the healthiest of ideas. Odds were good that one or both of them wouldn't survive the next few days. And if the Miracle really had something to do with Jack's blood, then he was the one who would die for this cause.

The thought filled Ianto's whole being with ice-cold fear. He wouldn't be able to bear Jack's death one more time – it wasn't guaranteed that Jack's theory was correct, and that time would really protect him somehow only because he was a fixed point –, and he didn't want to spend eternity all alone. So, should it really come to the extreme with Jack dying, then Ianto would blow his brains out before the Miracle was over, making him – in all probability – immortal again.

But he couldn't possibly tell Jack that. All that time, the older man had had so much hope and confidence that they would end the Miracle, and after that start a new life together like they'd planned. He didn't have the heart to destroy his believes by grim reality. Therefore, he searched for Jack's hand in the darkness, and threw him a smile from the side. “The universe is big. You still have to show me a lot. And we still haven't found a suitable planet for our new home.”

The weak moonlight showed Ianto the delighted grin suddenly becoming apparent on Jack's face. He shuffled closer to Ianto, and wrapped his arms around him. Together, they looked out onto the sea, but the way Jack talked, you got the impression they were looking into the vastness of space.  “ Yes, there's so much more I want to show you. And we have eternity for it.”

Prudently, Ianto didn't reply anything to that, instead leaning back against Jack's chest, and trying to participate in Jack's vision. At least it was a lovely idea.

 

Their secret arrival in Shanghai went swift and without any problems in the cover of night, and now, they sat here in their modest hideout so that they could decide how to go on.

“I'm stuck in a hovel owned by gunrunners, with Oswald Danes as a room mate,”  Gwen explained to Esther over the phone which pretty much summed their situation up.

Ianto only listened with half an ear to the rest of the conversation after he'd, relieved, made sure that the blood bags with Jack's blood were all right. Instead, he observed Jack. In all the hectic of their arrival, he hadn't noticed, but now with a little more peace, he realised how bad Jack looked. Maybe it had been the stress of their journey, but then he had been quite fine. Now, his condition seemed to have worsened.

Alarmed, he jumped up to support Jack when he collapsed weakly while standing up. Almost sick with worry, he helped Jack to lie down on one of the beds. Inwardly, he could only agree with Gwen's reproachful abuse.

“You told me that was healed,” she accused him, and knelt on the other side of the bed. 

“He really was better,” Ianto assured while he pulled Jack's shirt and T-Shirt from his trousers to shove them up. Both Torchwood agents gasped in shock when they saw the blood-soaked bandages. With gritted teeth, since inside this hurt Ianto as much as it did Jack, Ianto carefully ripped off the bandage, revealing the heavily bleeding wound underneath. 

“It got worse when we arrived,” Jack confirmed painfully which, quite frankly, Ianto had thought as much as well even if he couldn't explain it.

“Fine place to die, in old Shanghai,” Jack stated stoically, and Ianto would have loved nothing more than to slap him.

“You're not dying,” Gwen declared imperiously, and took Jack's other hand in hers. “Don't say that.”

“I'm so tired,” he whimpered, and sank back down onto the mattress in exhaustion. “This mortal life... it hurts so much...”

“I know,” Ianto whispered, and kissed the corner of his mouth. “We ordinary mortals have to – or rather, had to – deal with this on a day to day basis, remember. So, heads up.” He smiled at Jack encouragingly. “Mere mortality never killed anybody.”

“I don't want this any more,” Jack moaned, and Ianto was glad to hear this whiny tone because it  showed that Jack seemed to feel better.

“Well, now,” Oswald suddenly intruded upon the intimate moment. “Can't say I've been to China before, so I'm not well versed in their customs. But... I've got to say... I never knew about that.”

Irritated, the three looked up at him, and then, after they'd helped Jack up, they followed Oswald's fascinated gaze to the chair Ianto had thrown the bloody bandages onto. A drop of blood had dropped to the floor... and it moved. Like a drop of quicksilver that was pulled in by a magnet, the single drop of blood rolled over the floorboards in the direction of the door. 

Shocked, they watched its journey through the room.

“No wonder it's killing you,” Gwen breathed astonished. She jumped up, and followed the drop. “I think it's showing us the way!” She stepped up to the window, and looked outside. “It's the Blessing. It's somewhere over there.” She turned around again to Jack who'd struggled up on his feet in the meanwhile. They looked at each other meaningfully. “And I think, whatever it is, it's calling you, Jack.”

 

 


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14 – The Blood Line**

Tense, Jack and Ianto waited for Gwen to get in contact with them. She'd volunteered to follow the blood while Esther and Rex did the same in Buenos Aires. Ianto hated sitting here around idly like a coward, but his urge to protect Jack was stronger. He didn't want to leave him alone even if Jack didn't like it. If he wanted or not, the Captain was very weak, and they all could imagine that, the nearer he got to the Blessing, the stronger the pull got that it had on his blood, so as if it was pulled in by a magnet, no matter if it was still in Jack's body or not. 

When Gwen called them eventually, quite distraught although she tried to hide it, telling them that she'd found the Blessing, the rest of the team got going swiftly.

They didn't count on coming back here. 

In the back of a Chinese soup kitchen, Gwen waited, cowering in front of a black, ominous looking door like a lost little girl. 

“ Okay, what have we got?”

Gwen looked up to Jack sadly. “The sublink's just said there's been an explosion in Buenos Aires.  Special ops. It's Esther and Rex.”

Jack sighed heavily, and lapsed into a sad silence with Ianto which was only broken by Oswald Danes whom Gwen immediately attacked. Once more, she allowed her emotions to control her actions, but at the moment, they couldn't afford that. And Jack tried to get this through to her.

“But this is about you, Jack,” she tried to explain beseechingly. “If the Miracle is connected to your blood, then God help them, but they had the only reverse. The only blood we have now is in you.”

“Then I'd better be careful,” he assured her.

“But you could die this time.” 

“That's the game.”

Ianto stood by, and listened silently. He had to stop himself from saying “no, stop, we still got some of Jack's blood”. Namely the little phial he'd taken from him while being unconscious with fever, but he bit his lip, and stayed quiet. He wanted to save the world, but he at least owed his universe something. They would, they had to find another solution.

“What if I teleport to Buenos Aires?” he suggested. His two colleagues blinked at him with big eyes. He shrugged. “I have mortal blood, too. Then, we would have blood on both sides again if you don't manage it here.” 

Jack thought about it for a moment, but then he shook his head regretfully. “It's an antipode, Ianto, two ends that are exactly the same. So, I think it has to be the exact same blood as well.” He looked to Gwen again, and threw her an encouraging if strained smile. “Who knows. Maybe it's enough to  have my blood here in Shanghai. We don't know how the Blessing works or looks like yet. Let's go inside to take a look.”

Gwen nodded jerkily, Ianto as well, and then they followed Jack, like all the many times before, through the black door.

After knocking out the guard, they got onto the area undetected. That alone should have made them suspicious. The families didn't leave anything to chance. Would they really be so lax in guarding their trump? Did they really not know that Jack was near?  But in the end, they didn't have a choice. They had to get down there.

And indeed, when the lift doors opened downstairs, they were already awaited by Chinese security guards aiming their weapons on them. They were commanded by a middle-aged woman wearing an expensive lady's suit. She exuded an aura of power and authority, she resembled Angelo's granddaughter Olivia in that. And Jilly Kitzinger was there as well, whatever the reason was why she had been brought here.

“Captain Jack Harkness. At last.” The blond woman threw Jack a self-assured smile in greeting. She  thought herself victorious. Rightly so. But they weren't Torchwood if they still hadn't an ace up their sleeves. 

Oswald Danes stepped forward, surrounded by this imperturbable, almost uncanny calmness he always displayed. 

“With all due respect, Mr. Danes, You're a by-product of the Miracle,” the woman explained, “Not really relevant at all.”

“That's what the Captain said. He tried to tell me that my life has become a very small thing. Tiny. And yet right here, right now, at the very end, I would describe myself differently. I would call myself... vital.”

And with that, Oswald threw off his jacket so that the explosive vest he was wearing became visible underneath it. Concerned, the security guards backed off, and even their hostess seemed a little thrown behind her icy façade.

“Madam, you're a fine woman. You should be careful now, very careful indeed. It seems like you've been planning some kind of an explosion, but I'd love to make sure you're still inside.”

Now it was Jack who had a superior smile playing around the corners of his mouth. “Advantage Torchwood.”

“Well, I'm afraid we have a major disagreement here in Buenos Aires,” a sudden voice sounded over a speaker. “I'd say advantage families. Say hello to your friends.”

“What's that supposed to mean?” Jack cried agitated.

“He means us,” Rex answered over the connection.

“Rex?” Gwen cried happily in surprise. “Oh my God. And Esther?”

“I'm here. They caught us.”

“Just glad to hear you're alive,” Gwen called with a relieved smile.

“I'll swap your standoff for my standoff,” the man in Buenos Aires continued, and even over the crackling connection, they could hear the cocking of a gun. It became clear what happened when all of them heard Rex' upset “Don't you do it”.

“But nobody dies,” the man taunted. “She'll keep on living – just perforated.”

“Threaten me, you coward, not her!”

“Rex. Hey, I'm okay.”

Jack ground his teeth, and couldn't keep silent any longer. “If you hurt her, we've got explosives here ready to go,” he threatened.

“And don't imagine I won't,” Oswald added. “Whatever happens here tonight, there's no place on Earth that I can go, and I wasn't planning on coming out of here alive!” He threw Jilly a devilish, malicious grin which made the normally hard-boiled PR-woman look very troubled.

For a moment, strained silence reigned on the other end of the line, but then the man answered them in a jovial tone, “So, who's gonna lose their nerve first?”

“The thing is,” Jack explained, “we don't need explosives, or guns or threats, cos I've got the most powerful thing of all.” He looked the woman firmly in the eye.

And then, he strode past her down the stairs self-confidently, and stopped at the balustrade opposite the Blessing. With a fluent, dramatic swipe, he pulled forth a knife from his long coat... and cut his finger. 

Immediately, Jack's blood splattered from the tiny wound, and, as if in a maelstrom, was sucked through the air into the Blessing. A loud creak, almost like a moan could be heart when the blood drops disappeared into the gap. It was as if the Blessing reacted to Jack's blood, as if it welcomed it. 

“It wants me,” he whispered, and stared into the infinite abyss, “mortal blood.” He looked at the  woman again who'd stepped next to him. “So, I suggest you're very careful with me, okay?”

The Blessing started to sing. Jack, Ianto, and Gwen felt transported back into a certain warehouse a few years back where they'd encountered the space whale.  It sounded like its singing, eerie, beautiful, and transcendental. 

“Can you feel it?” Jack breathed. Ianto and Gwen nodded, completely captivated by the sight and the feeling flowing through them.

“It is said that it reflects your own self back at you,” the woman explained, and looked at them beseechingly. “What can you see?”

“Enough guilt to last me a lifetime,” Gwen answered without hesitation. But then, she took a deep breath to ground herself again. “But that's okay. I'm a working mother. I don't need the Blessing to tell me that.”

Instinctively, Gwen reached for Ianto's hand, and squeezed. He nodded. “Guilt,” he confirmed. “Because of Lisa. Because of my Jack...” He looked to the side, and looked this Jack into the eye. A small smile suddenly played around his lips, and it was, as it was for Gwen, as if the crushing burden of guilt the Blessing had shown them had disappeared all of a sudden, displaced with something much stronger. “And I see us. Our happiness. For all eternity.”

Jack returned Ianto's smile gently.

“And you, Jack?” the woman asked.

Jack shuddered, Ianto could feel it clearly as he stared into the Blessing, confronting himself. “I've lived so many lives. And now I can see them all.” Suddenly, he laughed, a little manic, but at the same time like his old charming self. “Hey. Not so bad.”

“Well, you might want to question your choice of weapon, soldier,” the grating voice of Jilly Kitzinger reached their ears suddenly, and they spun around. “Let's see. You brought the world's biggest bastard, wired him up to a bomb, then showed him his soul.” She grimaced mockingly while climbing down the stairs to them. “Hmm, that's good work. You know, I feel really safe right now!”

“Oswald?” Jack called concerned because suddenly, the other man started to writhe, breathing heavily as the Blessing obviously confronted him with the abysses of his soul. “Don't lose it.”

“The Blessing feels like sin,” Danes gasped.

“Oswald, don't,” Jack pleaded beseechingly. “I need you.”

But suddenly, Oswald pulled himself together under considerable strain, and stood straight again. It was as if he'd never been tormented by anything, and he smiled at Jack appeasing. “I guess I'm accustomed to sin.” Confident, he put his thumb back onto the bomb's trigger which he'd let go of in his pain. 

The team breathed in relief, and turned to the Blessing once more. 

“I still don't get it,” Gwen said eventually. “What are we looking at? The Blessing – is it the rock or is it the edge? What?”

“It's the gab in-between,” Jack answered. “The nothingness. The gap. It's alive.”

“It's like they broke the world,” Oswald threw in which described it pretty well. 

“You're the expert,” Gwen turned to Jack. “What is it?”

“The world's been turning for over four billion years,” Jack explained without taking his mesmerized gaze from the Blessing. “There's so much buried under its skin...”

“You don't bloody know, do you?” Gwen and Ianto almost simultaneously interrupted Jack's bumbling attempts at an explanation.

“No,” he laughed, making his two friends laugh as well.

“It's been here since the Earth began?”

“Could be,” Jack answered Gwen.

“We're so used to these things being extraterrestrial, but this might be the most terrestrial thing of them all.”

It was an idea that made you humble when faced with it.

And finally, the families started explaining how the Blessing worked. The man in Buenos Aires unveiled the symbiotic relationship of the Blessing with the human race, transmitting a morphic field around the planet to connect every human on Earth. That they'd fed it with the blood of an immortal.

“So the Blessing absorbed the blood, copied it like a new template,” Gwen tried to follow this step by step. “So, the system changed its setting.”

“You know why it did that?” Jack looked at the woman. “I think you hurt it. It was being attacked, so it took the blood pattern, and made it a gift. It's exerting itself to sustain every person on the planet. This whole Miracle... it's trying to be kind.”

“You've seen immortality,” Rex hissed disgusted. “I'm living it. Why would you want this?”

“This is only stage one,” the man explained calmly. 

“But you ruined the world out there!” Gwen called over the connection. 

The woman shrugged. “The Miracle shocked the economy. The economy collapsed. We tear down in order to rebuild. And now it's almost within sight... the new world.” A manic gleam appeared in her eyes, and megalomaniac greed played in the smile on her lips.

“Yeah, with no room for the poor, the weak, or the ones that don't fit in,” Gwen spat.

“That's the way the world works now,” the woman countered smugly. “We're just making it official. The families have just been waiting. Now we can step in to control the banks. The banks control the government. The government controls the people. Soon _we_ 'll be able to decide who lives, how long, where and why...”

Ianto wasn't alone with his pressing desire to blow a hole in Jilly Kitzinger's face, or throwing her over the rail into the abyss when she let out a happy cry of “finally!”. Even if she wasn't completely wrong that the world hadn't worked out to this point, this didn't give anybody the right to confound the structure of the world as they desired. And that only out of greed for profit. 

“But before you lau nched this brave new world,” Jack put a damper to her enthusiasm, “you had to deal with one more thing.” He glared at the woman. “Me.”

“His blood endangers the plan,” the man in Buenos Aires cried. 

“You failed. I got to Shanghai. I've got the only mortal blood on the planet.” Jack put the knife against his palm. “If it gets into the Blessing, life switches back. I can make the whole world mortal.”

The sudden victorious, mocking laugh of this woman send chills down their spines, and Jack stopped, the blade resting on his skin. 

She and the man gave a cackling laugh about Jack's lack of comprehension, and there, Ianto knew what they'd raised a while ago, but what they hadn't thought through to the end. It had to be Jack's blood, yes, but it had to get into both ends of the Blessing at the same time. Polar dynamic. They'd only thought that they had to feed it into one end of the Blessing, and just to be sure, they had brought it to both ends of the world. But that was all over now. Even if Rex and Esther had survived, their stock of Jack's blood was destroyed in the explosion. And now, Ianto didn't see any chance to get to the small supply he'd pinched to bring it to Buenos Aires unnoticed. Their friends would be dead on both ends of the world before he even had the chance to get a hold of the blood. They'd better come to an agreement beforehand, but then, all three of them had still operated under the impression that blood on one end would be sufficient (even if it was now ridiculously obvious that it could only work on both ends at the same time), and that was why Ianto didn't want to endanger the only chance his own Earth had without Jack.

The situation threatened to slip through their fingers. Now, they had nothing to keep the families at bay with. They were completely at their mercy, and they would end as Category One patients here and now. With the exception of Jack and Ianto. They would find, here deep under Shanghai their final resting place. But at least, they were together.

Threateningly, Oswald stepped forward again, and pointed the detonator at the woman warningly, but she wasn't even impressed by this any more since she now held the upper hand for good.

The erupting commotion in Shanghai almost made them miss Rex' breathless words who tried to communicate with them over the still open line. 

“Jus t listen to me! Jack!”

Abruptly, silence set in again, and new hope ran through Jack, Gwen, and Ianto as well as new suspicion on the part of the family members. 

“If you need Jack's blood, how about this?”

They had no idea what Rex was doing, but suddenly, an earthquake shook the whole ground. 

“Rex, what did you do?” Gwen called sceptically.

Oh... oh! Ianto and Jack looked at each other, a grin on their faces. Rex was clever! Provided it hadn't been Esther's idea...

But no matter whose idea it had been, now, they had Jack's blood in Buenos Aires as well! Hidden in Rex' body!

Panic broke out in Buenos Aires when Rex egged the guards on to shoot him while the panicked cries of the man tried to prevent this. At the same time, Jack put the knife to his hand again. 

That's it. The Miracle would finally end.

“We've got blood on both sides of the world, Jack, but...”

“They will die,” the woman confirmed alarmed. “Is that what you want? The Blessing will take every last drop. You'll both die, gentlemen.”

“I think, I've lived long enough,” Jack replied. And if she really believed he wouldn't do it, then she didn't know neither him nor Torchwood. All of them, especially Jack, had done worse to save the world. 

“Are you ready, Rex?”

“Oh, you know, I wish I'd never met you, you World Ward II idiot,” came the sarcastic answer to Jack's challenging question which should mean as much as “goddamnit, yes”.

“Just one last thing, Jack.”

Jack spun around to Gwen questioningly. “What is it?”

“You're never gonna be a suicide.” And with that, Gwen drew her weapon, and aimed it at Jack. 

He returned her gaze levelly, ready to accept his fate. But Ianto couldn't look. He tried to be strong, but he couldn't watch Gwen shoot Jack.

At her instruction, Jack turned around, and during this movement, his gaze met Ianto's for a last time. The connection only lasted a split-second, but it was enough to say everything between them that needed to be said. 

Shaking, Ianto's hand moved down to his own weapon, prepared to end his life before immortality got its clutches on him again. Either they'd both get out of here, or no one. It had happened once that only one of them had escaped a hopeless situation.  Not today.

A sudden loud bang cut through the silence, and with all the tension, it needed a second before everyone realised that it had been a shot in Buenos Aires, not here in Shanghai.

“Rex, what was that?!”

But it was apparent what had happened. Rex ' desperate swearing was answer enough .

“If the Miracle ends, she dies,” the woman explained. “Is that what you want?”

“Jack, what do I do?”

“I don't know.”

“Oh God, what do I do?”

Jack and Gwen and Ianto exchanged determined looks. They'd do what they always had to do.

Gwen pointed her weapon at Jack once more.

“I'll tell you what to do, Rex – you carry on. Keep going. Back to the plan.”

“We'll kill her,” Jack reminded softly.

“I know.”

“This is Esther we're talking about,” Rex cried desperately.

“Yes, I know it's Esther, and it's my dad, and it's everyone who's ever gonna die. But, Rex, we've gotta do this, and I'm gonna tell you why.” She looked to the side at Oswald Danes. “Because I'm standing here, and I'm staring at Oswald Danes. And he chose when that girl lived, and he chose when that girl died. And no-one should have that power. Not the rich, not the mad, not anyone.”

“You're choosing now,” Danes reminded Gwen with a chuckle.

“Yeah, you watch me.”

“You'll kill Jack and Rex and that girl, Esther, all of your Torchwood team? You'd kill them all?”

“Yeah,” Gwen stated without hesitation.

“Because that's what Torchwood does,” Ianto added softly. “It's not about us, only about the greater good. What's one more sacrifice for Earth's welfare.” He knew that it wasn't true, not for him at least, not for Jack. That the sacrifices they'd already made had broken them, and if they hadn't found each other that nothing could have saved them. So, it was only fair that they should lose the short happiness they'd found only together. They weren't as strong as Gwen. Kind, sensitive Gwen Cooper with her incredible sense for justice. Who a few years back never would have thought to shoot her best friend to save the world. But that's what Torchwood turned you into. 

“Yes,” Gwen replied, and exchanged a last look with Ianto. There was no begging for forgiveness in her eyes.  Not any more. And he didn't expect it from her.

“Ready?” she asked Jack, and he nodded, smiling in forgiveness although tears streamed down his cheeks. 

He turned around again, and stared into the abyss of the Blessing.

Ianto followed his gaze, and he followed the swirl of blood that was being sucked into the abyss after the ear-splitting shot had faded away. More and more disappeared into the darkness, and he had to force himself to concentrate on the moistly glistening red to block out Jack and Rex' screams  of pain. 

A blood-curdling quake gripped the Blessing again, but this time, it wouldn't stop. It was like a cry of salvation when the world was set to rights again. 

Stumbling, Ianto fell to his knees beside Jack, feeling for his pulse, but he was dead. His weapon was left forgotten in the waistband of his trousers because he knew he'd missed his chance. He was immort al again.

And alone.

Trembling, he pulled Jack into his arms, and started rocking him.

“Ianto!” Gwen screamed, and looked at him beseechingly. “We've gotta get out of here!”

But he didn't react to her urgent pleas, he only felt her beseeching gaze focussed on him. In the end, something must have made her realise that he wouldn't come with her because she pressed a kiss onto his cheek, and then she hurried to the elevator.

He closed his eyes, and waited for Oswald to push the button.

But suddenly, a gasp reached his ears, even drowning out the noise of the collapsing pit around them. Jack's body reared up in his arms as he was ripped back brutally into life.

Without hesitating, Ianto kissed Jack before he pulled him up. Together, they stumbled in the direction of the elevator. There, Gwen had noticed what had happened, and now she wrestled with Jilly Kitzinger about holding the elevator on the ground so that her friends had the chance to catch up. She caught them in her arms after Gwen had knocked Jilly out, but there was enough time for a happy reunion later. They exchanged a last glance with Oswald Danes who held the woman in his grasp tightly, then they fled as fast as they could, out of this pit and from the old warehouse before the explosion lightened up the nightly sky behind them, the hot shock wave wrenching them off their feet.

Somehow fascinated despite everything, the three Torchwood agents watched the fire while still lying on the cold concrete floor where the shock wave of the explosion had thrown them.

“And now?” Jack asked suddenly, leaning back on his elbows.

Ianto sat up, sullenly picking bits of concrete off his hands, his grazed skin however already healed. “Now we'll first take a detour to a small bank in Edinburgh,” he stated. “I have a locker there.”

He felt Jack's sceptical side gaze. “Containing what?”

Ianto turned to Jack. “Two vials containing your mortal blood.”

“What do you want with that?” Gwen asked irritated, and also struggled to her knees.

“In my universe they'll have quite the problem managing Miracle Day. Without Jack they can't end the Miracle.” 

“Oh shit, of course!” Gwen exclaimed in shock, slapping er forehead. 

Ianto shrugged his shoulders. “Provided they find the cause in the first place.”

“Hey!” Gwen punched Ianto in the shoulder. “Do you think the other Gwen can't sort it out on her own, or what?” 

“Completely alone?” Ianto looked at her with raised eyebrows. “I have the highest confidence in your abilities, Gwen, but none of us could have managed this alone.”

“True.” Frustrated, Gwen let out her breath, causing her hair to dance in the draught. “So what? You two just hop into the other universe, and give them the blood, together with a manual?”

“Yeah, something like that.”

“We could make a time leap, arriving before the Miracle. This way we could end it before it really starts,” Jack proposed. 

Ianto frowned. “Hm, maybe. Either way, we have to look for John to get the coordinates for my universe out of his vortex manipulator.”

“This might take a while,” Jack sighed, sitting up. 

“No way!” Gwen interjected with a wail, jumping to her feet. “We will not dash across the whole universe looking for John Hart. You may kindly drop me off at home first. I just want to go back to my family!”

 


	15. Chapter 15

**Epilogue**

It was so surreal, waking up the next morning, peacefully in the bed of Gwen's guestroom, Jack pressed tightly against his body, and knowing that everything was over. In reality, it wasn't really. It would be a long time before the world had caught itself again, and now, a time of mourning began for all of humanity. Gwen had to bury her father, and then, they would fly back to America... to bury Esther. Ianto still couldn't believe that she was dead, but that was real life. There wouldn't turn up a fairytale prince in a blue box to safe them all at the last minute. Belonging to Torchwood meant having to endure loss. He knew better than the most. It wasn't fair, but fate didn't distinguish there. So many had lost their lives last night; for most people, it had been salvation. Especially for... Ianto shuddered. Especially for the poor souls who'd been burned in the ovens already. He couldn't and wouldn't imagine that they were still human beings that were alive although they'd burnt to ash. The Blessing's desperate attempt to make a gift to humanity through immortal blood that had been forced on to her had turned out to be the worst curse in history. Only the families didn't see it that way, and Ianto was certain that they already had a plan B to create their perfect society which they could control. They would never find them all, and annihilate them, so, the families would remain something that had slipped to the last place on his mental to-do list for now. At least they had taken a few members with them into death. He had no idea how important this woman or this man in Buenos Aires had been, how high they had stood in the dynasties, but he was pretty sure that it had been quite the blow for the families. A small comfort at least.

Still completely exhausted, he moved closer to Jack, and put his head on his chest, closing his eyes. He could hear Jack's heartbeat under his ear. It was the most beautiful sound he'd ever heard. When, for one horrible moment, he had thought that Jack really was... Tears gathered in the corners of his eyes involuntarily, and ran down his face.

“Hey, hey,” Jack murmured suddenly, and tightened his embrace. The hot tears dripping onto his naked chest must have woken him up. “What's the matter?”

“Nothing,” Ianto replied stubbornly, and scrubbed away the tears. “It's just been a bit much.”

Jack sighed, and nodded. “I know.”

Ianto let out an unmanly, surprised squeak when Jack suddenly pulled him onto him so that Ianto's whole body blanketed Jack's, and they were able to look each other in the eye. Instinctively, he arched up into Jack's hands caressing his back enticingly, then gliding playfully over his ass. The muscles of his buttocks clenched in anticipation while their gazes held fast. Ianto's breathing sped up when Jack's fingers breached him without resistance all of a sudden. The Captain moaned softly when his finger slipped into the slick opening, still wet from his come from last night. Because, as soon as they had returned to Wales (via vortex manipulator since otherwise, they would have had to leave the country with the help of the smugglers again, and second, because all three of them had wanted to leave said country as fast as possible), as soon as the door of the guest room had fallen shut behind them, they had pounced on each other. Two survivors who now had to feel that they really were still alive.

This feeling hadn't left them completely even now, although in the meantime, a feeling of deep peace had overcome them, turning the fierce sex into something gentle, tender again.

Jack rolled them both around so that Ianto slipped between his legs. He wrapped them tightly  around Ianto's hips, and pulled him down into a steaming kiss. With one hand, he blindly groped for the lube. “Fuck me, Ianto,” he begged when their lips parted from each other for only a few millimetres while still sharing each other's breath. Ianto nodded jerkily, and shakily took the small tube from Jack. He didn't waste time with any tedious preparations but covered his erection with lube, put Jack's legs over his shoulders, and thrust into him with one snap of his hips into his unprepared bod y. J ack gasped in pain, but he encouraged Ianto to go on though by wrapping his arms around him, pulling him onto himself so that his lover slid into him all the deeper. 

For a moment, they were frozen in place, trembling and breathing heavily. A fine sheen of sweat covered their bodies, and without blinking, they looked each other deeply in the eye. Finally, Jack nodded shakily, and Ianto snapped his hips forward while Jack arched towards Ianto.

 

Ianto stood a little apart, and had averted his gaze. He stared at one of the many graves surrounding them instead at Jack.

He'd been surprised when Jack said to him this morning, “I want to visit his grave.”

He didn't even have to specify whose grave. Ianto had known instinctively. So, he'd simply nodded, and had followed Jack here. He let him go alone, and remained behind because he wanted to give Jack the time he needed. He wasn't even sure if Jack had ever been at this grave before. But it wasn't Ianto's place to be there with Jack now. Besides, it would have been strange to visit his other self's grave. 

But finally, he gave in to temptation, and looked over to Jack. He felt his heart break into a thousand little pieces when he saw the Captain standing before the modest grave so completely lost, a single red rose in his hand. Ianto began to move before his brain even consciously registered that his feet already were carrying him over to Jack. The nearer he came, the clearer he could see the wetly glistening tear tracks on Jack's cheeks, and he sped up his steps even more.

Stopping beside Jack, he wrapped his arms around Jack without hesitating, and he held the other man tight while he cried. Ianto too felt tears gathering in his eyes, and he knew that Jack, much like Ianto himself, not only cried for his Ianto in this moment but for Owen as well whose remains drifted in a flooded nuclear power station. And for Tosh whose remains had been blown up with the Hub together with all the other dead colleagues and friends who'd died in the service of Torchwood. He even mourned his dead brother. And they cried for Steven. Jack didn't even know where his grandson's grave was. Alice hadn't wanted to tell him when he had tried one last time to contact her. He would have had ways and means to find Steven's grave, but she had suffered enough because of Jack. If not getting the chance to stand before his grandson's grave to mourn him should be his punishment, then so be it. 

The sun continued undeterred on her way across the sky, and didn't care about the wounds the Miracle had inflicted. And she didn't care about one single man's pain who had given everything for this world, and lost everything in the course of it.

A shudder ran through Jack before he let go of Ianto to put the rose onto the grave. Gently, he caressed the grey headstone while salty tears fell onto the stone and the blood-red petals of the rose, and he fell to his knees before the grave. Tired, he leant his head against Ianto's hip when he stood next to him, and for a while, they remained like that. 

But eventually, Jack picked himself up, his knees shaky from kneeling for so long, and he took a deep breath.

“Goodbye, Ian to,” he whispered because they both knew that he wouldn't return to this plac e. At the same time, he squeezed Ianto's hand tightly because he had to feel his warmth and his pulse. 

“I'm done here.”

Ianto nodded, and led the dazed Captain away from the grave. He threw a last gaze back over his shoulder, and mouthed a heart-felt “thank you”. Even if it was unfair, but Ianto's death had allowed him to find Jack. And when they travelled into the other universe, then Ianto too would walk this path to Jack's grave for the first and last time. And he knew that Jack would feel like Ianto did now, that despite all the grief, the Captain would be grateful to his Jack that his death had made it possible to meet Ianto so that they could find salvation in each other.

 

The service for Esther was the final straw for them emotionally-wise, but on the other side, it gave them the opportunity to finally draw a line under the Miracle. The whole time, while his ears were filled with the singing of the other mourners as well as Jack's pleasant tenor, Ianto's gaze was firmly directed on the photo showing a gently smiling Esther. And that was how he wanted to remember her. A deep water that hadn't surprised all of them with her obvious kindness and humanity but with her courage which she worked up time and time again until the end despite all stumbling.

 

“I know it's inappropriate,” Jack whispered into Ianto's ear conspiratorially while they waited for the others who held a little small talk with some of Rex' colleagues after the service.

Ianto looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “Since when has it been  _not_ inappropriate for you, Jack?” he asked drily.

Jack blinked, and thought about it for a moment. Then, he grinned at Ianto cheekily. “True. So, then I can tell you how incredibly hot you look in this suit, and I'd like nothing more than...”

“Ready?” Gwen squeezed herself between the two, and linked her arms with the two men's.

Ianto blushed, and cleared his throat in embarrassment while Jack threw Gwen a charming smile. 

“Sure.”

She looked up at him sceptically, then at Ianto, and raised one eyebrow when she noticed the delicate blush on his cheeks. Then, she rolled her eyes, and pulled them down the corridor, away from the funeral parlour. 

They all paused in their amicable banter when suddenly, Rex' mobile beeped.

 

The shots the CIA agent had given off slowly faded away in the vast hallway, and Charlotte Wills' lifeless body dropped to the marble floor, perforated with bullets.

Desperately, Jack looked for a pulse at Rex' neck, but he couldn't find any. 

“No, no, no,” Gwen whim pered in Rhys' arms, “not after everything he's gone through.”

“There's nothing we can do,” Jack stated softly, and let go of Rex to pull Ianto in his arms.

“I'm sorry,” he whispered. “I'm so sorry.”

For the blink of an eye, the friends were frozen in shocked grief. When suddenly, a jolt went through Rex' body, and he sat up again gasping for breath.

With a shocked outcry, the four of them reared back from the gasping and suddenly very alive Rex.

The CIA agent stared up at them dazedly.

“What?!” Jack stammered aghast. 

“What?!” Ianto and Gwen cried equally as bewildered.

And finally, Rex contributed an equally as unintelligible “what?!”. Frowning, he looked down on himself faced with the stunned gazes of his friends, and pulled his bloody shirt apart. When he saw that his gunshot wound started to close mysteriously, all he could do was suppress his upcoming hysteria with all of his might by letting go of his helpless wrath.

“What the hell?!” Gob-smacked, Gwen still stared at Rex' now injury-free chest. 

“That's impossible,” Jack declared firmly. 

“You!” Rex snapped, and glared at Jack. “World War II, what the Hell did you do to me?!”

“I,” Jack stammered again, but he was lost for words. 

“Tell me!” Rex screamed, and sat up.

“I don't know!” Jack screamed back. “That's impossible! My blood can't turn people immortal, I've told you already!” 

“Well, you obviously thought wrong!” Rex sneered in helpless rage.

“I leave you alone for five minutes!”

Everyone looked up with big eyes towards the unexpected voice next to them, still being completely thrown from the events they had just experienced.

“John!” Jack stammered stupidly, when suddenly John Hart stood before them, hands stemmed into his hips, and with a reproachful look on his face.

“You!”

“Hey, love.” John threw Gwen a cheeky grin.

“Who's this now!” Rex demanded to know grumpily, because suddenly nobody bothered with him any more although he'd just died, and resurrected. 

But nobody answered him, but rather, the three Torchwood agents still faced this John character. Hadn't it been a John who'd brought Ianto from the other universe?

Great. Another of these alien-timetravel-experts, if he wasn't even an alien himself.

“Ya really could've given a holler,” John pouted. “Once in a lifetime something happens on Earth, concerning – surprise – Captain Jack Harkness, and I miss out on all the fun.”

“You'd have been just what we needed,” Ianto replied dryly. “With Rex, we had one pain in the arse enough, but I promise to let you know when facing the next crisis.”

“Hmpf, good.” John nodded ardently, not giving a shit about Ianto's sarcasm while, in the meantime, everyone ignored Rex' insulted “hey”.

“Come on.” Gwen grabbed Rex under his arms and pulled him up, who immediately began complaining bitterly about his new life status.

“John.” 

Questioningly, John looked up at Jack, all three of them ignoring Rex' hue and cry, as well as Gwen's answering swears in the background. He jumped in surprise as suddenly, Jack bent down to him, kissing him tenderly.

“Thank you,” he smiled, after he stepped back from the kiss. 

John blinked perplexedly, and just as he thought he'd recovered, Ianto stepped up to him, too, and kissed him on the cheek.

“From me, too: Thank you,” the younger man said ardently, smiling at John as well.

Shyly, he evaded their gazes, and put his hands into his pockets. “Well... you're welcome.”

“What are you gonna do, now that you're here again?” Jack asked after a few seconds of silence.

“Och, you know, I'm an honest business man, my trade works out pretty well in Mexico...”

Jack fixated him with a pointed stare after hearing the wording 'honest business man', but John ignored him, continuing unfazed, “It would be irresponsible to turn my back on all this.”

For a moment, Jack stared at him expressionlessly, before he let out a dry, amused sound. “Do that, honest business man, you.”

“Will do. And you two?” He looked from one man to the other. “You wanna stay here or do you want to return to space?”

Jack and Ianto threw each other a brief look before Jack shrugged. Now, the time was finally there to decide. “Actually, we wanted to go back to space, but... first, we have to take care of him.” He nodded his head at Rex. “Been pretty surprising. On the one hand, it's relieving to know that I'm not the only immortal.” He looked at Ianto, being happier about Ianto's immortality than Rex', of course. “But nonetheless, we have to find out if he's a fixed point in time like me, or just being... well, immortal like Ianto. Maybe the effect is only temporary. I think, we should find the Doctor. At least he can tell us this much.”

“You and your Doctor,” John scoffed, earning an assenting noise from Ianto. “But that's all right with me. That way you won't breath down my neck all the time.”

“As if I have time for this.”

“Ah, yes, right,” the ex-Time Agent grinned. “Of course, you have obligations to each other. They take priority.”

Jack returned his grin, but became serious again immediately. “They do. For the last hundred years, I did everything for this planet and Torchwood. Sacrificed a lot, too.” He grasped Ianto's hand, squeezing it. “Now I definitely don't care any more. Let somebody else take over my responsibility. At least for a while. Torchwood will be continuing unofficially, and Gwen's got enough experience to master smaller crises.”

Sardonically, John raised an eyebrow. “I'll ring for the larger crises.”

Jack nodded. “Do that. But until then, it's just Ianto and me.”

“Sounds good. If you ever get bored of each other... I've always been open to orgies.”

“Thanks, but no, thanks,” Ianto intervened suddenly. He glared at John, even if his eyes held a wicked gleam.

Laughing, John put up his hands in defence. “Never mind,  ' m just saying. Because you'd better understand that you'll have forever with each other.”

The two immortals looked intensely at each other for a long moment.

“Yes,” Jack replied in the end, smiling, and without averting his gaze from Ianto. He squeezed his hand. “We do.”

**End**

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short while ago, I watched Miracle Day again after many years, and somehow I couldn't get over the third episode. Besides that some of the storylines are pretty dumb (but since there weren't any other Torchwood seasons after Miracle Day, I had to take what I could get for my necessary dose of Captain Jack. I even started watching Arrow from all the withdrawal!), I really liked the episode on the plane, though (it's funny, and thrilling, and it mostly revolves around Jack, not Rex or, Heavens beware, Oswald Danes, whose function probably even Russel T Davis himself doesn't know). And somehow, it automatically made Klick! in my mind as I saw this young flight attendant, Danny, and I thought: Ianto would be perfect in this role, being undercover or something to keep watch over Jack during the flight. Especially when Rex says, “I'll let you feel her up if it'll get me a vodka”. Wham! This was practically an invitation to transfer that to Ianto.  
> Normally I feel it is very tiring to fumble along the real episodes and the actual dialogues for my own fanfic, but in this case, I really couldn't resist. Miracle Day becomes much more bearable with Ianto in it to care for Jack's needs instead of some unimportant barkeeper for a one-night-stand.
> 
> The challenge now was to solve the little problem of Ianto's death.  
> At the same time, though, I'd read HappyChick1964s “Another Thought”. Very depressing and sad to learn at the end (Spoilers!) that Jack only remembers his time with Ianto while in reality, he drinks himself to death in some seedy bar. But it was this idea with which it started, and since I'm a John Hart fan I could bring in to get Jack out of there, it all fit together suddenly.  
> Bringing a Ianto from a parallel universe was much more easier for me than revive our universe's Ianto. I always liked the idea that Jack (like in Season 1, Episode 3) could breath life into someone through a kiss (even if it doesn't always seem to work or is on the table as an option at all, depending what the script of the episode needs), only in that case too much life, dying himself in the process. And even if it feels kinda weird at the beginning cause we know it's another Ianto, not ours, if Davis can get Jackie Tyler together with a Pete from another universe, then I can do that as well without feeling bad about it (ironically, I decided to do this before ever watching that Doctor Who episode, so, I'm not even borrowing this idea^^).
> 
> So, I simply put the two plot ideas together, et voila!  
> I hope you liked it. I'm gladly open for constructive feedback.


End file.
